Shameless career criminal jailed after scamming Bulwell pensioner

Nottingham Crown Court heard how Mark Woodliffe, 54, from Clifton, told a series of elaborate lies to trick his way into people’s homes.

However, he was caught after striking in Bulwell, on November 20 last year where he posed as a council worker and claimed he needed to fit a new interior light in the 84-year-old victim’s home.

After gaining access to the man’s home, he distracted him before fleeing with his wallet and £30 in cash.

Unfortunately for Woodliffe, however, his victim remembered his face and was later able to pick him out during an identity procedure.

He was also caught on CCTV committing similar offences in three other locations prior to the one in Bulwell.

The court heard how during one theft at an address in Oundle, near Peterborough, he posed as a workman who had come to fit additional alarm points to the property.

After inviting himself in, Woodliffe distracted his victim by asking him to wait in the kitchen and made off with his wallet and more than £500 in cash.

He struck again at an address in Chesterfield last September when he posed as a council worker carrying out necessary maintenance work.

Realising his victim was partially-sighted, Woodliffe scammed him for more than £400 after leafing through his wallet and walking him to a cash point.

He next struck in Blackpool when he approached his victim at a cashpoint and pretended to be one of his carers.

After befriending him and following him home, Woodliffe claimed he was going to fit a safe in the property to protect the victim from burglars.

The catch was, however, that he needed to know what items would be put into the safe for insurance purposes.

After asking his victim to make him a cup of tea, Woodliffe fled with around £500 in cash.

However, Woodliffe’s crime spree was brought to an end after his Bulwell victim was able to recognise him in a police line-up.

In court, he was convicted by a jury of three counts of burglary and one of fraud by false representation.

Woodliffe had previously been handed a seven-year jail sentence in 2015 for a very similar series of offences.

Detective Constable Natalia Montano, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Woodliffe is an utterly shameless and scheming career criminal who deliberately targeted elderly and vulnerable victims with a brazen series of distraction thefts.

"In doing so he not only stole their money, he also stole their sense of security and trust in other people. Many of them are still suffering with the after effects today.

“Woodliffe has a long history of this kind of offending but in pretending to have previously been a carer for one of his victims he showed particular cruelty in this case.

“I am delighted that Woodliffe has now been held to account and I hope this sentence will also offer some sense of closure to his victims.

Another man, Ian Richardson, 63, also from Clifton, had already pleaded guilty to his involvement in the first offence in Peterborough and will be sentenced at a later date.