"I had to tell ill mum her son had scammed her" - Sister tells how family is ripped apart by brother's £25,000 fake love swindle

Besotted Howard Clark, 64, became the victim of a romance scam after being duped into several fantasy affairs with foreign women online – but in turn, his mother, Hilda Clark, 93, became a victim of fraud after he took cash left to her by her late husband to feed the bogus romance.

The married father, of Beckdean Avenue, Poulton, admitted stealing £25,000 – but the pensioner’s remaining family say much more appears to be missing, meaning they only have enough to fund her social care for another three years.

Clark is now serving a 25 month jail term after admitting theft.

Tragically, the confused pensioner had to be told of her son’s action’s in order for a legal document to be obtained to allow her daughter to take control of her finances.

Daughter Melanie Gregson was tearful as she said: “I had to tell her why I was applying to take control of her money. That was terrible – it will never, ever leave me.

“She kept asking why has he done it – why would he take her money?

“An hour later she had forgotten.

“But an hour later, because of her dementia, she did not know what had happened. I don’t mention him now and she doesn’t mention him either. We can’t describe the trauma we’ve gone through.

“Mum won’t be able to afford her care home fees in three years’ time.

“Howard and I were quite close, though we wouldn’t phone each other every day. He was always working and didn’t return my calls.

“My dad had worked so hard to provide for them and mum was frightened to death she wouldn’t have enough to live on.

“She worked on and off but she mainly brought up me and my brother – that’s what you did in those days. She totally depended on my dad.”

When husband Raymond, a former accounting lecturer at Blackpool’s college of further education, died 12 years ago, Hilda, was living in Kendal.

When she developed Alzheimer’s she moved back to Lancashire.

Melanie, who lives in Yorkshire and had retired just a month before the offences came to light, was stunned to receive a phone call from police saying she needed to safeguard Hilda’s money after suspicious bank staff had contacted officers.

She said: “I was absolutely devastated and didn’t believe them. I actually phoned the police back to check they had genuinely made the call. I couldn’t get to grips with the fact my brother had done this.

“At no point would Howard admit it. I met him in Poulton and confronted him and he made excuses he had borrowed money to help a friend of a friend who was ill, and said he was sending money abroad to help. Then he said he was being emotionally blackmailed and at that point I was more concerned about him.

“I told him to tell me if he was in trouble. I said it was my mum’s money and he had no right to do that.

“Our whole family are victims in this, the family has crumbled. Some relatives’ homes were searched which caused a lot of upset and tension. I feel in the middle of it.

“Howard had a choice when I confronted him but he lied – and he carried on even after police had got involved.

“I wish people who fall victim to romance scams would stop when they realise what is happening but it’s like they find themselves in a spiral and don’t want to admit it.”

Howard Clark was sentenced at Preston Crown Court last Friday

Police were alerted after concerns were raised regarding unusual withdrawals from Hilda’s account in July 2017.

Large amounts of money had been withdrawn as cheques and made out for cash directly to Howard. When questioned, he claimed he had been given permission to withdraw the money by his mother for respite care.

Further financial checks found substantial amounts of money had been transferred abroad from Clark’s accounts to bank accounts in Lithuania and Malaysia.

In November 2017, officers found cash bundles totalling close to £4,000 at his home address. Officers checked the 64-year-old’s mobile phone and found he had formed relationships with a number of foreign women.

The phone revealed conversations with women from Malaysia, Lithuania, Turkey and the United States.

During the conversations, they made requests for money, which he transferred to them.