Confidence trickster pretending to be stockbroker jailed for fraud

A smooth-talking confidence trickster has been jailed after he dishonestly persuaded four people to part with almost a hundred thousand pounds.

Mr Henryk Rusin, 56, pretended to be a successful city banker and stockbroker in his scheme to swindle money from his victims. He would promise huge returns on sums of money and would then use the money that they gave him to fund his own lifestyle. The victims were invariably left with nothing.

The confidence trickster’s victims included a newsagent whose shop he frequented to buy cigarettes, a builder who was carrying out work on his home in Tring and two women who he had befriended.

The fraud was discovered and reported to the police after Mr Rusin failed to deliver any of the returns that he had promised. A police investigation followed and he was subsequently charged with four counts of fraud by false deception.

The case came before the St Albans Crown Court on 26 September 2013. The Crown Court heard evidence that the offences had covered a four-year period between June 2007 and July 2011 and that Mr Rusin had preyed on vulnerable persons for his scheme, including a man whom Mr Rusin had persuaded to part with £35,000 with a promised return of £110,000. This man – the newsagent referred to above – was particularly vulnerable as he was trying to raise money for his son’s medical treatment in the United States.

Mr Rusin pleaded guilty to all four counts of fraud by false deception and was sentenced to a jail term of three years and four months.

Judge Steven Warner, passing sentence on Mr Rusin, stated: “These were mean offences which involved the loss of hard earned money” and that “there is a dishonest streak in you which has appeared after a gap of 18 years” – a reference to the fact that Mr Rusin had been jailed for similar offences in 1995.

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