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A man who posed as a street beggar and tricked two pensioners into parting with his life savings of hundreds of thousands of euros amid claims that he needed cancer treatment abroad has been jailed during six years.
Brudut Iosca (38) of Relic Road, Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath squandered more than € 300,000 on gambling after obtaining funds from two separate retirees who took pity on him after he repeatedly told them stories of grief.
His lies included being evicted from his home, having a sick father abroad, and having life-threatening cancer.
The Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard that Iosca, who has lived in Ireland for 20 years and is a father and grandfather, had swindled a 69-year-old man out of his life savings of € 207,750 from October 2017 to August. of 2018..
Loans
The man approached Bandon Garda station in West Cork in September 2018 for advice on what he thought was the friendship he had built with the Romanian.
Sergeant Ailish Murphy told the court that the pensioner informed gardai that he had given a man loans of more than 200,000 euros that year.
The affected man raised the alarm when Iosca, who gave him a false alias, requested an additional sum of more than 100,000 euros to exchange a house in Serbia. He had told the man that he would return the amounts owed to him through the general sale of the house.
He misled the victim with several “crying stories”, including that he was in a desperate situation and facing eviction.
He claimed to be a Serbian citizen and said that he had had a difficult life in his country. The man even received a fake email that allegedly came from a Serbian lawyer involved in the sale of the house.
Second victim
The court heard that the man built what he thought was a good relationship with Iosca and that the defendant even invited him to his Westmeath home for dinner at one point.
The garda investigation involved the analysis of Mr. Iosca’s bank documents. During the course of the investigation, Gardai discovered a second victim of the scammer.
Iosca had approached a woman in her seventies when she was begging on the streets of Dun Laoghaire. He claimed he was from Iran and gave a false name.
He contacted her repeatedly claiming she was in financial difficulties. The lady started paying him monthly installments.
He took advantage of the retiree from 2012 to 2019 at one point and told her he needed money to go abroad to his mother’s funeral. Garda’s investigations later determined that her mother was alive and well and living in Ireland.
Cancer claims
In 2017, the payments increased when he contacted the woman claiming she had cancer and needed treatment abroad. She had given him her life savings at the time and obtained a loan of 15,000 euros that she is still paying in installments of more than 300 euros a month. The man managed to swindle the woman out of € 123,000 over the seven-year period.
A garda investigation established that the man received 3,000 euros a month in state benefits, including disability and free travel. He also had a medical card.
Sergeant Murphy said Iosca was never homeless and had never been behind in paying rent on any occasion. He received a rent subsidy from the state.
Gardai searched Iosca’s home in Westmeath in March 2019, where they found documentation related to his scam. He was not present when they went to the house.
His partner claimed that he was abroad taking care of his mother, who had undergone surgery.
Callous
Following Garda surveillance, he was subsequently arrested at his brother’s home in Blanchardstown in July 2019. He admitted that he had never had cancer or needed medical treatment abroad.
Sergeant Murphy told the court that Iosca “squandered the cash as quickly as it was received” on gambling. She said that he had turned to people while begging on the streets and that he had “perfected his craft over a period of seven years” cruelly.
Defense attorney Tom Creed, South Carolina, said his client pleaded guilty the first opportunity he had to avoid what would have been a long and complicated trial.
Ireland
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Judge Sean O’Donnabhain said the victims were “devastated” by the defendant’s behavior.
He told the court that Iosca had left the retirees “humiliated, degraded and impoverished.”
He added that the “pile of sob stories” that Iosca had made up had led two innocent and kind people to offer him charity. He imprisoned Iosca for six years.
Iosca had pleaded guilty to six examples of cheating charges.
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