Fraudster and robber stole thousands from vulnerable neighbour

WHEN VICTIM REFUSED TO LET HIM IN, HE GRABBED HIM BY THE THROAT

- By MARTIN NAYLOR

A HEARTLESS fraudster and robber carried out a campaign of stealing money from his dementia-suffering neighbour.

Nottingham Crown Court was told how heavily-convicted drug user Jamie Beeston would let himself into the victim's flat below and transfer cash to use for himself.

On the final occasion, when the complainant refused to let him in, the 33-year-old defendant barged his way in, grabbed him by the throat and robbed him. And, just months earlier, when he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act, Beeston, of Gedling, threatened to rape and murder female staff he assaulted at the hospital unit where he was being looked after.

Jailing him for two years and 11 months, Judge Mark Watson said: "This was a course of conduct against (the victim) over a number of weeks in which you took over £2,000 from him. He was your neighbour, you were living above him and he was vulnerable having suffered a stroke, a brain injury and who was living with early onset dementia.