A FRAUDSTER who scammed his victims out of thousands has been given yet another chance to pay the money back.
Cranhill man James Adair appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
The 40-year-old previously admitted to scamming a total of £8891 from five different people, including OAPs, by taking payments for landscaping work he failed to carry out.
His sentencing had previously been deferred several times before for him to make payments.
At a previous hearing on March 2023, Sheriff Patrcia Pryce said: “I’ll defer this further for him to keep saving up.
“I’m going to literally get him to put his money where his mouth is.”
On Wednesday, Adair’s defence solicitor said: “This case has a significant history. It’s been deferred on a number of occasions.”
Sheriff Pryce replied: “I made it clear on the last occasion he was going to be jailed. Every time he comes to court, he magically has a job then when the hearing is over, he doesn’t.
“It seems he doesn’t want to pay back his victims, some of which are elderly.
“His elderly victims are sitting in their houses terrified with their doors locked as they don’t trust anyone.”
Adair’s lawyer revealed her client had saved up just under £1500 and currently has a job working as a gardener.
It was not revealed how much had been paid back already. Sheriff Pryce said: “According to the report, a fair amount of the money he’s saved has come from his mum. So, he’s stealing from elderly people then stealing from another.”
Adair was ordered to pay £1455 in the next seven days and a further £500 within the next month.
Sheriff Pryce said: “If he doesn’t, I’ll send him to jail on the next occasion.”
Adair will return to court on October 26.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article