Serial con artist fleeced widow out of £150,000 to splash out on luxury holidays – then tried to pin the ‘truly evil’ fraud on her DEAD husband – as she is jailed for more than three years
- Rosie Grewal, 42, convinced grieving Patricia Makcewicz to hand over money
- Mother-of-four from Rochester, Kent, promised to invest the cash in a flat
- Pensioner was told she would receive rent from the property, but it was a ploy
- Grewal fobbed off victim with excuses and has now been jailed for 42 months
Rosie Grewal, 43, is pictured arriving at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent yesterday
A mother-of-four who fleeced a widow out of more than £140,000 in a series of ‘truly evil’ offences before blaming her own dead husband was jailed yesterday.
Serial con artist Rosie Grewal, 42, of Rochester, Kent, convinced grieving Patricia Makcewicz to hand over the money by promising to invest it in a flat.
The pensioner was told she would receive rent from the property, but it was a ploy – and Grewal then fobbed off the woman with excuses for three years.
After the fraud, Grewal went on holidays twice, leaving Ms Makcewicz suicidal.
When interviewed by police, she blamed the fraud on her husband, Mahminderjit Mahl, who died during the investigation.
Initially, her barrister Stella Harris said Grewal had believed the scheme to invest in a flat was honest but soon realised afterwards that it was not.
Grewal changed her pleas to guilty to two counts of fraud hours before going on trial at Maidstone Crown Court. The cases involved £130,000 and £18,000 between 2012 and 2015.
Ms Harris claimed Grewal’s husband was an alcoholic who kept control over her. She said: ‘It was a chaotic existence.’
Grewal convinced a grieving woman to hand over the money by promising to invest it in a flat
Judge Charles Macdonald QC said: ‘These offences are truly evil. You have repaid not a single penny but you were able to arrange foreign holidays while awaiting trial.’
Grewal was jailed for 42 months and remained passive as the judge heard about the suffering of her victim who was left depressed and suicidal.
In an earlier trial, it was heard how Grewal had conned others into handing over money for houses owned by Bellway Homes.
Christopher Prior, prosecuting, told the jury: ‘She persuaded people that she had some connection to a development by Bellway Homes.
‘She took deposits claiming she could reserve a plot for them at a discount.
‘In fact, she had no such connection to the company and the would-be buyers had no claim over the plots.’
One victim was tricked into handing over £1,000 for property in Greenhithe, and two others handed over £800 and £2,500 respectively.
Grewal would later claim it was her husband – known as Min – who had told her she was authorised to sell plots. The jury rejected her claims and convicted her of fraud.