Accused fraudster arrested as seniors bilked out of $31K

Six additional Manitoba seniors have lost a total of $31,000 to scammers pretending to be their grandchildren.

Four Winnipeg seniors, in their 70s and 80s, as well as two seniors in Portage la Prairie, were defrauded out of thousands of dollars, Winnipeg police said Monday. They all received a phone call from someone claiming to be their grandchild who said they needed emergency bail money.

Police said the money was picked up at their homes by a male suspect, and in one case, after the senior said they didn’t have access to cash, the suspect accepted jewellery instead.

The scams occurred on Feb. 17, 19, 25, and 26 in Winnipeg and Feb. 26 and March 5 in Portage.

Police arrested Lyven Lemieux-Theriault, 24, of Quebec on April 15, and charged him with three counts of fraud over $5,000 and three counts of fraud under $5,000. He was kept in custody.

Lemieux-Theriault was also arrested on March 17 and charged with pretending to be a justice official when a man in his 80s was called and told one of his relatives had been arrested and would go to jail unless they paid him money.

The senior paid the money to a man who came to his door. After checking with relatives, the man man realized he had been scammed.

In March, the Winnipeg Police Service, in partnership with Age and Opportunity, announced the six-month campaign dubbed Just Hang Up to assist in foiling fraud artists.

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Police have given presentations to 300 seniors since the campaign launched, providing tips and strategies to prevent being scammed.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.