A WOMAN whose frail mother was duped by a bogus ambulance driver spoke today of her amazement that his actions were not illegal.

Terence Cooper walked free from Leeds Crown Court yesterday after a judge handed him a suspended sentence for 15 emergency service connected frauds.

He was never accused of impersonating a paramedic because, unlike the impersonation of a police officer, this is not currently a criminal offence.

Jenny Lewington, of Wheldrake, was one of numerous people duped by the fantasist, who operated the bogus Yorkshire Regional Ambulance Service from a rented house in Wigginton Road, York.

Jenny employed Cooper to move her 85-year-old mother Lilian Newton to a nursing home in Wheldrake after being passed his phone number in March 2002.

She told the Evening Press she had used a private ambulance service before and "alarm bells certainly didn't ring" when she spoke to him to arrange the transfer of her wheelchair-bound mother to the nursing home.

But when the conman arrived with a minibus-style vehicle, she was shocked by his unusual methods. "I was expecting a kosher ambulance. He was on his own and he didn't have any distinctive clothing on," she said.

"But my main concern was to get my mother to the home as soon as possible."

The so-called ambulance did not have a chair-lift and it took Cooper several attempts to get the extremely poorly Lilian into the vehicle using a ramp.

"She was in extreme pain and every movement hurt," said Jenny. "The journey itself was only five minutes, but the vehicle did not have any suspension, so she felt every bump in the road. By the time we got to the nursing home, she was in a terrible state."

They reluctantly paid Cooper £119 and when Lilian wrote to ask why the fee was higher than that of similar organisations, they were informed that it was because the job took place on Easter weekend.

The horrified family only discovered the truth about Cooper's web of lies when police seized his computer and found the invoice he had sent them.

Amazingly, he has never been charged over this deception because it is not a criminal offence - a worrying legal loophole which could place vulnerable people at risk and should be closed, said Jenny.

"You place your trust in these people and expect them to be professionals with their own expertise. He had no medical experience and you just think of what might have happened, especially if Mum had had to go outside of York."

She said of Cooper's suspended sentence: " If he is going to be able to stay out of trouble for two years, we will see, but at least he has that prison sentence hanging over him."

Updated: 11:41 Saturday, January 15, 2005