Man who posed as street beggar conned two pensioners out of their life savings

A man who posed as a street beggar and conned two pensioners in to parting with their life savings of hundreds of thousand of euro amid claims that he needed cancer treatment abroad has been jailed for six years.

Brudut Iosca (38) of Relic Road, Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath squandered over €300,000 on gambling after he secured the funds from two separate pensioners who took pity on him after he repeatedly told them tales of woe.

His lies included being evicted from his house, having a sick parent overseas and having life-threatening cancer himself.

Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard Iosca, who has lived in Ireland for 20 years and is a father and grandfather, had conned a 69-year-old man out of his life savings of €207,750 on dates from October 2017 to August 2018.

The man approached Bandon Garda Station in September 2018 seeking advice about what he thought was the friendship he had built up with the Romanian man.

Sgt Ailish Murphy told the court the pensioner informed gardaí that he had given a man loans of over €200,000 that year.

The 69-year-old raised the alarm when Iosca, who had used a false name, sought a further sum of over €100,000 to redeem a house in Serbia. He had told the man he would pay him back sums owed through the overall sale of the house.

He tricked the victim with various “sob stories” including that he was in dire straits and facing eviction.

The Garda investigation involved analysis of Iosca’s bank documents. During the course of the probe gardaí discovered a second victim.

A woman in her 70s had been approached by Iosca when he was begging on the streets of Dún Laoghaire. He claimed he was from Iran and gave a false name.

He repeatedly contacted her alleging he was in financial difficulties. The lady started paying him monthly instalments.

He preyed on the pensioner from 2012 to 2019, at one point telling her he needed money to go overseas to the funeral of his mother. Garda inquiries later determined his mother was alive and well and living in Ireland.

In 2017 the payments escalated when he contacted the woman claiming he had cancer and needed treatment abroad. She had given him her life savings at that point and took out a loan of €15,000 which she is still paying back in instalments of over €300 a month. The man managed to con the woman out of €123,000 over the seven-year period.

A Garda inquiry established the man was in receipt of €3,000 a month in benefits from the State including disability and free travel.

Sgt Murphy said that Iosca was never destitute and had on no occasion fallen behind on his rent.

Gardaí searched Iosca’s home in Westmeath in March 2019 where they found documentation linked to his scam.

He was subsequently arrested in Blanchardstown in July 2019. He admitted he had never had cancer or needed medical treatment abroad.

Sgt Murphy told the court that Iosca “squandered the cash as fast as it was received” on gambling. She said he had targeted people while begging on the streets and that he had callously “perfected his craft over a seven-year period.”

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said the victims were “devastated” by the defendant’s behaviour. He said Iosca had left the pensioners “humiliated, degraded and impoverished.”

He added the “bunch of sob stories” Iosca had concocted had led to two innocent and kindly people extending charity to him. He jailed Iosca for six years.

Iosca had pleaded guilty to six sample counts of deception.