BBC Rip Off Britain presenter Gloria Hunniford has said she felt violated after a fraudster ripped her off to the tune of £120,000.
The 76-year-old Northern Irish woman, who is originally from Co. Armagh, had her bank account emptied when an imposter arrived at a Santander branch in Croydon with her ‘daughter’ and ‘grandson’.
Speaking today on Loose Women, the Irish TV star said: “The banks will have to up their security tactics. They’ve nothing to give you these days, no interest to give you for savings, the only thing they have to offer is trustability, safety and the knowledge that you can trust your bank.
“ I feel violated. I have no trust for the banks,” she added. “I know that the scammers are very, very clever these days but you know the thing is – she said her daughter was with her and sadly I don’t have my daughter any more.”
Gloria’s daughter Caron Keating died in 2004 after a seven-year cancer battle.
The incident took place on June 3 last year when personal banker Aysha Davis, 28, said a woman posing as Ms Hunniford told her she had ‘a few bob’ in her account and had come to add her teenage grandson as a signatory because she had been ill.
Davis, of Cromie House, Streatham High Road, south London, was accused of being part of the plot at the Croydon North End branch but was acquitted after less than 30 minutes of jury deliberation after saying the TV star was ‘not of my time’.
She had denied one count of conspiracy to defraud.
CCTV of the unidentified ‘lookalike' the police are still hunting for. (Source: Court News UK)Police are still hunting for the imposter and her ‘daughter’, while stand-in grandson Alan Dowie, 18, of Hazelwood Road, Oxted, Surrey, was spared jail so he could go to university.
He was handed an 18-month term of detention, suspended for two years.
Old Bailey Judge Timothy Pontius said: “You achieved nothing accept your arrest and criminal conviction which will be on your record for many years.”
The court heard that within 90 minutes the first tranche of £19,000 was paid into Dowie’s bank account and over the course of the day a total of £102,000 had been drained.
His card was then used to blow hundreds of pounds on clothes and £80,000 on Rolex watches.
He told police he had been recruited by a pal called ‘Timmy’ to go into the bank with a woman pretending to be his grandmother and another posing as his aunt.
Reyon Dillon, also 18, of 30 Notson Road, Croydon, laundered some of the cash from the scam and will be sentenced on September 7 having pleaded guilty.
Santander have since reimbursed the money stolen from Ms Hunniford’s account after it was drained of the £120,000.
But Ms Hunniford, who regularly appears on This Morning, The One Show and consumer advice show Rip Off Britain, said: “From my point of view I have lost all faith in banks, there was nothing I could have done about this. I was a sitting duck.”
Giving evidence, Davis said she had never met Dowie before he walked into the bank and had to google TV star Ms Hunniford - to find out who she was.
Prosecutor Sheilagh Davies said: ‘But she’s pretty famous.’
Jurors giggled when the defendant replied: ‘In your opinion.’
She added: “Banks get defrauded every day but because of the high profile of the person on the account, I am being used as a scapegoat to try and repair the damage to the bank’s reputation.”
The court also heard how the imposter looked nothing like the glamorous star when she posed as the TV personality.
