Two-timing gambler Edward Clark conned nearly £52,000 out of girlfriend

While his disabled wife of two years struggled with pain so bad that at times she cannot work, James Edward Clark, 29, started an intimate relationship with a Ryedale woman and used lies and threats he would kill himself to fleece her, York Crown Court heard.

Rob Galley, prosecuting, said he falsely claimed that he needed the money because his father was ill, his business account had been hacked and he couldn’t pay his bills.

He persuaded her to transfer £45,878 from her bank account and got £1,000 of her grandmother’s money. He ran up £3,985 debts on her credit cards, and got her to act as guarantor for loans of at least £10,000 which she may yet have to pay back, the prosecutor said.

Altogether Clark got £51,929.61 from her which he spent on betting. After his lies were exposed, the girlfriend from a small village north of Malton told the court she had wasted two years on a dangerous and manipulative man who had ruined her health and left her with debts.

“My main concern is he would do this again to another victim. I think he would if he is presented with another opportunity,” she said in a personal statement.

“This was an abuse of trust and fraudulent activity over a sustained period of time,” the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris told Clark.

“You left her devastated and broken.”

Clark’s wife told York Crown Court she and her mother would lose their home if he was jailed and that she couldn’t work full-time because of her long-term injury.

But the judge said the sentence was too long to suspend.

Beef farm employee Clark, of North Stainley, Ripon, pleaded guilty to fraud and was jailed for 32 months. He faces an assets confiscation hearing next year.

Defence barrister Chris Smith said Clark’s mental health was “not straightforward” and handed in a psychiatric report.

He said Clark was repaying the loans guaranteed by the victim and was remorseful. He was working on tackling his gambling addiction.