‘The Handyman’ ruined my life

7:00pm Friday 23rd June 2006

A GREAT grandmother today described how a bogus caller labelled The Handyman wrecked her life.

Jean, 76, who is partially sighted and did not want to give her surname, told how the callous conman had stolen £130 from her home in Blackburn.

She spoke out as police launched a national campaign (Operation Titanium) to catch the thief, who has conned at least 60 women out of tens of thousands of pounds in the last four years.

And the widow said: "This has changed my life completely. I am a wreck now. I used to be a confident person but now I am frightened of my own shadow. If anybody knocks on the door it goes right through me."

The woman, a retired domestic from Blackburn Royal Infirmary, said she was usually conscious about not letting strangers into her home but a neighbour had knocked on her window to say a man from the council had come to see her.

The swindler told her he had come to inspect her drains and Jean let him into her home.

Once inside, she said, he appeared to make a phone call and said that somebody would be along in 20 minutes. And then asked her to make him a cup of tea, his signature trick.

After she had made him the cup of tea, she noticed that he was in her bedroom. When she confronted him he said he was inspecting the ceiling.

She thought that he had taken her purse from a chest of drawers as it was not there and when she confronted him about this he put his face up to hers and said: "Are you accusing me of stealing your purse?"

She then went to her kitchen as she also hid her purse in her oven but the purse was not there. When she returned to the bedroom he handed her the purse and said it had been on the floor.

She then took the purse and hid it beneath some cushions in her front room.

She said: "I put it beneath a cushion but he must have been watching. He walked in and took the purse. I ran after him but of course I could not catch him."

Jean said she had seen the CCTV pictures captured recently of the man believed to be the handyman and added: "I will never forget his face and I am sure that's him. I've looked through my eyeglass and I am 100 per cent sure that is him."

Det Sgt Sam MacKenzie said the 60 known cases could be just the tip of the iceberg and the man could be one of the most prolific conmen in the country.

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