A shameless fraudster conned a single mum out of her life savings and a dad out of his daughter’s wedding fund then blamed his dishonesty on a gambling addiction.
Disgraceful James Anderson, 43, betrayed his own friends by exploiting their misfortune and tricked half a dozen of them into parting with £22,274.
He’d turned on the charm to get them to pay into a fake financial scheme and pretended to invest their hard-earned cash in stocks and shares.
But none of his six victims ever received a penny of the profits and most of their money remains lost.
Anderson has now been brought to justice at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, where he pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining money by pretending to invest in stocks and shares.
James Anderson’s fraud scam ruined Inverurie mum’s life
A mother of two disabled children from the Inverurie area lost all £5,619 of her life savings, which nearly caused the 50-year-old to lose her home.
“He devastated my life,” she said, adding: “He destroyed my finances and I will probably never recover from it.”
The single parent had recently become a victim of a Bitcoin scam before she met Anderson.
“James played on the fact that I’d suffered this loss and was struggling,” she explained.
“He said his scheme, which used a great computer programme, would help me recover from it and that I would earn all that money back and more.
“But instead, this horrible man preyed on my vulnerabilities and caused horrific damage to my life – even putting me at risk of losing my house.
“I had to start working much longer hours, which meant that I wasn’t getting time with my kids to help them.”
The master manipulator was so crafty that he even convinced a friend from Inverurie to invest his daughter’s wedding fund in his dodgy venture.
The dad said: “James Anderson is a parasite who takes advantage of innocent and vulnerable friends. He’s a horrible man.
“He doesn’t have any conscience. He doesn’t care who he hurts. He doesn’t care if you’re friends, a pensioner, disabled – he will take money from anyone.
“I haven’t got over a friend doing this to me and I’ve lost my faith in humanity. It’s hard to believe that somebody I know and socialised with has done this to me.”
Scammer turned nasty when one victim demanded his money back
Another of Anderson’s victims, 60-year-old Alan from Turriff, was also taken in by the conman and described how he turned nasty.
“Not long after I gave him my money I became unemployed and I was sitting with next to nothing,” Alan said.
“When Covid hit, one of the excuses he gave me to explain why I couldn’t get my money back was that the money had gone through an Austrian bank and it couldn’t be accessed because of Covid.
“He started getting angry when I was asking for my money back. He phoned me for three hours and challenged me to a fight.
“He also said he was going to kill himself because he was sick of the hassle, claiming he hadn’t done anything wrong and blaming everybody else. This guy has no shame.”
Inverurie conman exploited the Covid-19 pandemic
A 44-year-old man from Kintore, who also did not want to be identified as a victim of fraud, was among a group of six people who bravely supported Anderson’s prosecution.
He said: “It annoys me to think about how he took money from my redundancy payout for the job that I lost.
“He’s an a***hole and an evil bugger.”
Anderson’s disregard for human suffering extended to exploiting the global Covid-19 pandemic, which led to the deaths of thousands of Scots.
During lockdown, a 55-year-old businesswoman from Inverurie found her livelihood under threat from the economic impact of the Coronavirus spreading.
“He took advantage of our business situation during the pandemic,” she said.
“We had nothing coming in, which was very difficult, so, I hoped that the investment with James would give us a boost to keep us going.
“I gave him money during lockdown and he told me and my husband that he had invested in the Moderna vaccine manufacturer, claiming their shares were doing particularly well.
“I think he told people that he’d made £73,000 for us, which made others want to invest with him. He exploited us all.
“We trusted him but he completely betrayed our trust and the trust of other people. I know other people who haven’t gone to the police because they feel embarrassed and ashamed.
“When you look at some of the people who he scammed, you realise that he has no conscience at all. He’s played on their vulnerability. He has absolutely no morals at all.
Fraudster James Anderson was addicted to gambling
Details of convicted drink-driver Anderson’s six victims were revealed as he stood in the dock on Friday February 16.
Fiscal depute Eilidh Gunn told the court that he told one of them that “he had devised a system where she could see big returns in four to six months – and that the returns would be tax-free”.
The fiscal depute added: “He told her this was something he did on the side, but that she would have to keep it to herself.”
Before he was sentenced, Anderson’s defence solicitor Michael Burnett said his client had become addicted to gambling.
Mr Burnett claimed Anderson had been using the stolen money to fund his habit.
“What had started out as an idea quickly turned into something completely different,” the solicitor said.
“Mr Anderson was spending money through gambling. He wasn’t living some lavish lifestyle.
“It’s a high figure. He accepts the behaviour and he is willing to pay compensation.”
‘I can’t believe he won’t serve time’
Sheriff Robert Frazer told Anderson that he was “extremely fortunate” that this case was not being dealt with as an indictment matter due to the large sum of money involved.
“With some hesitation, I’m prepared to deal with this with a community disposal as an alternative to a custodial sentence,” the sheriff said.
Sheriff Frazer imposed a community payback order on Anderson, whose address was given on court papers as Leask House in Inverurie but was said to live in Glasgow now.
Anderson will also be under supervision for two years and was also ordered to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work and repay £22,000 to his victims.
Reacting to the punishment, his victims said they felt mixed emotions.
One said she felt “disappointed but not surprised with the sentence” and another said that while she also felt “disappointed he wasn’t locked up, there would be no chance of getting a penny” if he was.
“I can’t believe he won’t serve time,” another victim said, with another branding the justice system “a joke” – adding: “He’s got off very lightly”.
They all urged other potential victims to come forward.
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