Student Conned By Confident Trickster

(Written for Falmouth Navigator.)

A local student was conned of £350 last week when a “confident trickster” offered him a drug deal before disappearing with his money.

The victim, who wishes to remain unnamed, had befriending the con-artist over a few days. He planned to meet the dealer on Monday January 10th to make the deal after gaining his trust, but the deal didn’t go to plan.

“We met him at some garages on Trevethan Road where we gave him the money,” he said. “He went to fetch the drugs but sure enough, he didn’t come back and now we can’t contact him.”

The con-artist had contacted the student two days before, persuading him that it was a good deal to make and that it would be a mistake not to. He said: “I knew that it was too good to be true, but I guess my greed made me ignore it.”

The victim befriended the dealer over the few days of knowing him. He commented on his confidence and believable character which denied any of his self-disbelief.

“He told us about a Drum and Bass night that he was organising and invited us to come along,” he said. “All the time he was gaining our trust and confidence.”

“We knew that you should never trust a drug dealer out of sight with your money, but he gained our trust so quickly that we considered him a friend,” he added.

The victim commented that he has heard of this happening before and wanted to warn students about what had happened.

Sergeant Gary Watts, Falmouth’s Neighbourhood Team Leader, said: “Having a large section of the community in their late teens/early twenties does bring with it a large social drug use problems. These people are easy prey for drug dealers and those who wish to con.”

He said that it’s not often that reports are made of a con in relation to drugs because: “It is rare for someone to come forward about being conned whilst attempting to commit a criminal offence” themselves.

He added: “We do not have a drug problem in Falmouth above anything of a normal town of this size and we, fortunately, do not suffer from continuous problems.”