THREE men have been jailed for a combined 11 years after stealing £3,000 worth of savings from a “vulnerable” 84-year-old man in Cardiff.
Peter Joseph Gilheaney, Patrick Gilheaney and Patrick O’Lorcain were handed down their sentences at Newport Crown Court on Tuesday August 4.
The three men travelled to Cardiff from their home town of Bristol on March 12. There, they targeted the 84-year-old man in the Splott area of Cardiff city.
They followed him as he walked home from doing his shopping and O’Lorcain struck up a conversation. After assuring the elderly man that he knew him, O’Lorcain followed him to his house.
There, he told the man that the gang would put him in a home if he did not have his house painted.
The victim gave O’Lorcain £100 for supplies to paint his house while Patrick Gilheaney entered the home and brought the victim to the back of the house to discuss further work.
While he was distracted, his £3,000 of savings were stolen.
After the gang had left his home, the victim discovered the robbery and went to the bank to withdraw £3,000 to replace the money that was taken from his home.
Concerned, the bank officials contacted police who discovered that he had been robbed.
Using CCTV and liaising with Avon and Somerset police, the South Wales Police eventually tracked down the three men to Winterbourne in Bristol, where they live.
Such was the strength of the evidence against them that they pleaded guilty to the crime, despite first denying being in Cardiff on the day it took place.
“This was a callous and cruel crime, whereby an innocent, elderly person has been deliberately targeted by a calculating and uncaring group of individuals,” Detective Inspector Ian Bourne of Cardiff Bay CID said. “This incident has had a profound effect upon the victim and has left him questioning who he can trust.”
Peter Joseph Gilheaney was sentenced to four and a half years, Patrick O’Lorcain to four years and Patrick Gilheaney to two and a half years in prison for their parts in the robbery.
