A con man posing as a garda to scam elderly people out of money is thought to be spending several days in a county at a time, before moving on to another county to target other victims, writes Ann Murphy.
The man, believed to be from the Limerick area, is targeting elderly people in counties including Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, Kilkenny, Galway and Sligo.
Gardaí believe he travels to different parts of the country and spends a number of days there, either with friends or in local accommodation. He then uses his time to target the homes of elderly people.
In the most recent incident in Cork, a woman in Ballingeary, near Macroom, had money stolen from her after a man knocked on her door claiming to have money found outside her house. The man managed to snatch cash from the woman after he told her he wanted to check the serial numbers on any bank notes she may have.
In other cases, the man has successfully persuaded elderly people to hand over thousands of euro to him through two scams.
In some cases, the man claims to be from a detective unit checking for dud notes. In other cases, he claims to work for Eir who has found money outside his victim’s home. In that scam, he asks the elderly householder to check their wallet to see if they are missing money and then manages to snatch money from the wallet.
In Cork, the man has targeted Ballingeary, Bantry, Skibbereen, Mitchelstown, Newmarket, Rushbrooke and Youghal.
A number of different cars are believed to be linked to the conman. One is a brown Volvo.
He has been described as being in his 40s, with dark hair. He sometimes wears glasses. In the Mitchelstown incident, his hair was described as fair and gardaí believe he may have worn a wig on that occasion.
This story first appeared in the Evening Echo.
