Man jailed for £100k trail of fraud targeting elderly and vulnerable

A 30-year-old man has been jailed after targeting elderly and vulnerable people in a series of frauds totalling more than £100,000.

James Trodd, 30, also known as James Harland and Martin Ashbrook, handed himself in following a Crimewatch appeal, having been wanted for more than two years.

Trodd, formerly of Beaconsfield Road, Portslade, and Kingsland Close, Shoreham, has no fixed address but links to Brighton, Bexhill and other parts of Sussex.

Sussex Police said that he “facilitated the transfer of tens of thousands of pounds from victims’ bank accounts between September 2022 and August last year when he was arrested”.

The police investigation, Operation Glasshouse, linked frauds across Sussex and the south east of England and Trodd was charged with 17 counts of fraud by representation.

Police said that, after Trodd made contact with victims as a customer, tenant or through befriending, he fleeced them.

He used their bank accounts to obtain credit cards, made money transfers, pay for hire cars and opened accounts in their names, leaving some victims left in arrears and unable to pay their bills.

Trodd was jailed for six years nine months at Lewes Crown Court on Wednesday 16 April for what Judge Stephen Mooney said was the worse example of fraud that he had seen.

He was previously described as “grubby, unkind, manipulative and spiteful” by another judge who sent him to prison.

Trodd has served time for defrauding his grandmother’s best friend and also swindled a workmate and even his own brother.

While working in recruitment in Brighton he convinced a colleague that they could start their own business and conned her out of £2,000.

He was jailed for three years and three months at Hove Crown Court in August 2019 for a series of frauds – and for two years and three months a year later after 10 more scams came to light.

In August 2014, at Brighton Magistrates’ Court, Trodd was given a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, after he conned two Vodafone stores – in George Street, Hove, and Churchill Square, Brighton.

He was also found to have committed a breach of trust by using a relative to try to defraud Nationwide building society and the Vodafone shops.

At one crown court hearing, Trodd was said to have spent the proceeds of his crimes on cocaine, alcohol and gambling.

Detective Sergeant Paul Elrick said: “This was a protracted and complex investigation into James Trodd, a serial fraudster, who preyed on the elderly and vulnerable.

“My heartfelt thanks go to the victims, witnesses, those who supported from Enable and Nationwide, and to all the banks involved, for their efforts in helping secure a conviction.

“The police will always work with banks to target those who prey on elderly victims to support their own greedy lifestyle.”