Burglar pretended to be builder to scam his way into homes of the elderly

A serial burglar, who target elderly people pretending to be a council employee or a builder, has been jailed for more than a decade. Jim Chuter, 33, carried out the burglaries at the height of lockdown when any of the victims were unable to see their families and were entirely alone.

Chuter, who carried out the offences in Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Kingston between September 2019 and July 2020, used distraction techniques to get into the victim’s home and once inside he would steal from them and use other scam tactics to con them out of their cash.

Once he had been inside their homes, he would continue to hound the victims, phoning and intimidating them into paying more money for work that had never been done. He targeted one 90-year-old man for several months stealing the man’s entire life savings of £25,000.

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The Judge sentencing Chuter described his activities as a ‘campaign of dishonesty.’ He had previously pleaded guilty to 26 charges including nine for burglary, sixteen counts of fraud and a robbery. Following a joint investigation Chuter was arrested in August 2020 and was recalled to prison, having been recently released on licence for similar offences. He was later charged with multiple counts of burglary and fraud, 14 of which took place in London.

Investigating for the Met, detective constable Hannah Woodford said: “Chuter is a career criminal whose cowardly offences were committed against vulnerable and frail people at a time when they were already living with the worries and loneliness of pandemic life.

“As police, we understand that the effects of being a victim of crime go far beyond a loss of property and my thoughts are with Chuter’s many victims and their families. I hope that the considerable sentence handed down brings them some comfort and a sense of justice.”

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