Man who defrauded blind piano tuner out of £185,000 jailed for over 5 years

After an in-depth investigation into a fraudster in Manchester spanning over four years, Mark Stanner (03/01/1982) of Brocklehurst Avenue,  Macclesfield has been jailed for 5 and a half years at Minshull Street Crown Court after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud. 

Detectives from GMP’s Economic Crime Unit uncovered a four-year long fraud against the victim, who was a man in his 50s. The victim is blind and has been since birth.

It was revealed through an in-depth investigation, that Stanner used a call centre company in Manchester as a front for his crimes, where he bombarded the victim with phone calls, texts and emails. The messages to the victim said that he owed funds to various publication companies, the messages claimed that the victim owed money for adverts that had been placed in numerous publications to advertise his trade as a piano tuner. In the beginning, the financial demands were small, these demands date back to 2017. The victim paid the initial demands, requesting that Stanner would leave him alone if he paid. As time went on, these demands progressively got more and more aggressive and frequent.

Because of the amounts of money Stanner demanded from the victim, he had to borrow money from friends and family as he needed to purchase braille software to read a string of invoices that Stanner had falsely created.

In some instances, Stanner left the victim with as little as half an hour to pay his demands such as asking him to pay £4000 within an hour and threatened that he would come and take his property if he didn’t meet the demands.

For over four years, detectives have been investigating and built a strong case against Stanner and uncovered that he was gambling with his ill-gotten gains.

Martina Turner (02/09/1980) of Sunnyside Road, Droylsden was given 18 months suspended sentence and ordered by undertake 200 hours of unpaid work after she was found to have £31,000 of the victim’s money to go through her account to mask her brother, Stanner’s crimes.

Alongside Stanner and Turner, Marvin Scott (01/05/83) of Charlestown Road, Manchester was jailed for 31 months after he allowed £48,000  from the company to move through his bank accounts to conceal the finances for Stanner.

Mark Stanner and Marvin Scott

Detective Constable Michelle Wilkinson, of GMP’s Economic Crime Team, said: “Stanner has shown no remorse throughout our investigation and has actively sought to conceal his finances by enlisting the help of Turner and Scott who kept money in their accounts for Stanner.

“Sadly, this case demonstrates how easy it is for people to fall victim to fraudsters, especially when they are convincing. The victim was vulnerable, and Stanner took advantage of this. I hope he spends his time in jail thinking about the consequences of his actions.

“We would like to use this opportunity to ensure that we are providing crime prevention advice to individuals across Greater Manchester, we want to equip our communities with advice on how to reduce your chances of falling victim to fraud.

"Look out for unexpected contact from unknown companies asking for your money, the likelihood is that this is fraudulent. Check who has contacted you and make sure that it checks out. 

"With cases like this it is common there is no written invoice prior to the payment just a demand for money with little to no explanation of why they need the money. 

"Fraudsters will often say that the payment is urgent and will accompany the demand for money with immediate threats of bailiffs and debt collectors, putting pressure on victim's to part with their money. 

If you, or someone you know has been a victim of fraud, please report it to Action Fraud by visiting - www.actionfraud.police.uk. 

For more information on fraud prevention advice, please visit out website: Advice about fraud | Greater Manchester Police (gmp.police.uk).