adminAn unsuspecting bride was scammed out of more than £50,000 by her conman husband — who even pawned her diamond wedding ring.
Mechanical engineer Colin Jarvie, 38, spent four years stealing from new wife Letizia Salaris to fund his taste in expensive cars. He was jailed for 27 months yesterday after admitting seven charges of fraud and one of theft in what a judge branded “a catalogue of dishonesty”.
Gloucester Crown court heard Letizia became a victim of Jarvie from the moment they were married, after meeting him on an online dating site.
He ducked out of their Far East honeymoon by saying he was ill and had to go to hospital.
In fact he had paid for the wedding and honeymoon with his employers’ credit card — and soon afterwards he started stealing from Letizia to help fund his taste for expensive cars and clothes. The court heard he took her £8,200 engagement ring “to be cleaned” — but then pawned it for £2,000 before claiming to his insurers that it was lost and getting an £8,000 payout. For almost four years, Jarvie also stole the £1,000 his new wife paid him each month towards their mortgage. In total she lost £50,400 to the fraudster.
Prosecutor Julian Kesner said: “When she first started going out with him in 2005 she was not the only woman in his life. But they did settle down and they arranged to go on honeymoon which he paid for with the company credit card. The defendant paid for the wedding through the same company card. “Immediately after the wedding, before they went on honeymoon, he said that he couldn’t go because he had to go into hospital and as a consequence of that he didn’t go home with her after the wedding.
“Nor could she arrange, although she wanted to, to go and visit him in hospital and she didn’t actually see him there. His excuse was that he kept changing wards and doctors so she didn’t see him.
“They bought a house together in Crawley West Sussex and agreed to settle the mortgage speedily by each paying £1,000 a month, a significant overpayment. He paid only the £600 interest on the mortgage.”
Kesner added: “In August 2012 he asked to borrow £2,000 from her. She didn’t agree but he took the money in any event. He was desperate for money. Also in August 2012 he asked her for her engagement ring, a diamond ring of some value. He said “I want to get it cleaned” and she gave over the ring but it was the last she saw of it. He pawned it for £2,000.
“Not only did Jarvie get an £8,000 payout from Aviva for the ring — he also tried to claim the loss on another policy with Direct Line but they turned him down.”
Jarvie, originally from Motherwell, Lanarkshire but now of Chelmsford, Essex, also duped his employers, customers, insurance companies and a Cash Convertors shop during a campaign of fraud, the court heard.
Sentencing Jarvie yesterday, Judge Jamie Tabor QC told him the most serious offences were those against his bride. — Reuters
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