Suspicious postman helped catch conman as he tried to steal an identity

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AN eagle-eyed postman helped snare a prolific conman as he tried to carry out an identity fraud.

Glynn Salmon, who has more than 70 previous convictions for dishonesty and an array of false identities, was loitering outside a house in Keynsham, waiting for the postie to arrive.

He intercepted him and pretended to live there so that he could pick up mail that did not belong to him.

But the suspicious mail man cottoned on to Salmon's ploy and, after handing him some junk mail, contacted the police.

Bristol Crown Court heard that when police caught up with the wanted 64-year-old, he was found with false documents, identities and bank cards in his car.

Salmon was jailed for 16 months yesterday, after he admitted four charges of fraud.

Prosecutor Tara Wolfe told the court that on December 15 last year, the postman became suspicious of an "elderly man" walking down the path of a house in Lincoln Close, as if he was leaving it.

She said Salmon asked the postman for the mail for the house and was shown fake ID under the name of "Mr Brown".

The postie handed over only junk mail.

Two weeks later the same postman spotted Salmon in his Vauxhall Astra car waiting outside the same home. He asked for the mail again.

The court heard that the postman knew there were bank cards being sent to the house in his delivery - but told Salmon there was nothing for him.

When he saw Salmon waiting outside the same home on a third occasion, he called his bosses, who contacted the police and gave them the car's registration number.

Officers discovered Salmon was a wanted man. They arrested him and found false identities, fake documents and other people's bank cards in his vehicle.

Ms Wolfe said Salmon was on the run from police for another scam in Cambridge in November 2014, when he had obtained the bank card and PIN number of a man and tried to withdraw £4,000, falsely using his identity.

She told the court that attempt was foiled by a cashier at Lloyds Bank after she became suspicious of Salmon when he gave a slightly incorrect address. He left the bank before he was apprehended, but was caught on CCTV and identified.

Just days earlier £12,000 had been transferred from the victim's personal account into the joint account Salmon was trying to access, the court heard.

Ms Wolfe said Salmon had 35 previous court appearances for 102 offences – 74 of which were for dishonesty.

In 2012 he was jailed for three-and-a-half years for fraudulently attempting to obtain more than £45,000 from a Wokingham building society, and had been released from prison just before attempting the Lloyds scam.

Defending, Kathryn Drummond told the court that homeless Salmon had received treatment at Bristol Heart Institute after he suffered a cardiac arrest and had since had a pacemaker fitted.

She said he was unable to walk further than 20 metres and relied on a wheelchair to get around.

He also had breathing difficulties, gout and had been given only a 15 to 30 per cent chance of surviving the next year, Ms Drummond addded.

"Custody can only have a detrimental impact to his health. With a current chance of death high, it may exacerbate that condition," she told the court.

"Addressing his past offending must be at the forefront of his mind because he is aware that (if he was given a suspended sentence) a breach will have dire consequences on where he spends his latter days.

"His homelessness has been a factor which had a considerable bearing on his motivation to commit this offence."

Judge Euan Ambrose told Salmon: "I am told it was homelessness that was the motivation for your offence. It may have been the need for money that led you to offend, but I cannot overlook the fact you have been offending for decades.

"It seems to me you are, on the face of your record, an extraordinarily dishonest man."