Betrayed

Marion Cooper said she was horrified when she discovered that Dave Matts had run up a £20,000 overdraft on her bank account.

Mrs Cooper, 68, thought Matts was repaying money she had lent him, when he was actually siphoning money from her account, and even collecting her mail to stop her seeing her bank statements.

Matts, 46, who went on the run after his deceptions were uncovered, was finally jailed for three years at York Crown Court for a series of crimes, including duping Mrs Copper out of £40,554 - though she claimed the true figure was about £100,000.

Mrs Cooper, from Stockton-on-the-Forest, said: "My advice would now be don't trust anybody - I know it sounds awful because there are some trustworthy people out there, but it's made me very bitter and I've had no compensation."

Marion Cooper, 68, said she treated Dave Matts like a son, loaning him £25,000 to set up a business, and letting him have her credit card - which he used to run up massive debts in her name.

The Evening Press has previously reported how Matts, 46, was jailed for three years at York Crown Court for a series of offences, including duping Mrs Cooper out of £40,554. He was given an additional four-month sentence for skipping court, after going on the run for a year.

Mrs Cooper, of Sandy Lane, Stockton-on-the-Forest near York, has suffered from curvature of the spine for the past ten years and walks with sticks as a result.

She said she first met Mr Matts five years ago when he came to do some work at her home.

They became friends and he would come round for a cup of coffee and do odd jobs for her.

The loans started with payments totalling £600 which Mr Matts, who lived in Sheriff Hutton, paid back. Reassured by this, Mrs Cooper was persuaded to lend him her credit card to take out £300.

"At first I thought he was paying it back and it wasn't a problem," said Mrs Cooper. "Once he had the credit card I kept asking him for it back, but he kept coming up with excuses to keep it.

"Then he told the postman he was my son, and started collecting my mail and keeping hold of my bank statements so I couldn't see how much was coming out."

After several months without bank statements Mrs Cooper got in touch with her bank, and had her mail redirected to her daughter's home in Hartlepool - never once thinking Matts was responsible for its disappearance.

On checking her statements, Mrs Cooper realised Matts had run up a £20,000 overdraft.

"My reaction was one of horror. I felt terrible. I felt hurt and betrayed because I'd treated him like a son and I felt like he'd betrayed me totally.

"I couldn't believe anybody could be that deceitful."

He even gave her the number of his "solicitor", who Mrs Cooper rang to double check Matts was going to be able to pay her back.

But it turned out the solicitor was in fact Matts, who dropped his Birmingham accent and put on a convincing act to dupe the widow.

Mrs Cooper said as well as the £40,554, Matts had access to her current account and was stealing her pension to a total amount she claimed was in the region of £100,000.

She claimed it was hard for the police to prove exactly how much he had taken from her because it was being taken from various accounts, which was why he was only charged with stealing £40,554.

Matts had denied some of the charges originally put to him, which were dropped.

Mrs Cooper and her husband ran a plumbing business for 20 years and owned rental properties in and around York before selling the houses and investing the money.

Updated: 08:48 Saturday, May 07, 2005