Pensioner Susan Reed jailed again for swindling $120k from lonely widower

A Maitland pensioner and serial scammer, who took out an add in the paper as a ‘lonely lady, looking for companionship’, has again duped another victim of $120k. She has learned her fate.

She’s a serial fraudster duping lonely hearts and exploiting the kind, trusting natures of men just looking for companionship.

Pensioner Susan Reed from Maitland has been committing fraud offences for more than four decades, an “entrenched” pattern of offending, a court has heard.

The 66-year-old found to be swindling her victims “for greed” knowingly setting out to take their cash, as she spun a web of lies.

Susan Reed at Newcastle Court, Picture from 2004 where she was again facing numerous fraud charges. Pic Robert McKell

The latest victim a 74-year-old man duped out of $120,000, whose wife had recently passed away and answered a lonely hearts add put out by Reed in July 2017, in the personal section of the paper.

It read ‘lonely lady, recently widowed, seeking companionship, honest, loving and loyal’.

Reed appeared via video link in Newcastle District Court on Friday and was visibly emotional, with her head in her hands as facts and her history of offending was read out.

Judge Tim Gartelmann said her conduct was “unsophisticated” but she had lied about her intentions and did it repeatedly over a long period.

“She did it for greed,” he said.

“She has been committing offences since her early 20s and done it many times since, and has been repeatedly in prison from fraud.”

Judge Gartelmann noted Reed was ashamed of her conduct only when pressed on examination and had lack of insight into her offending.

“It does not demonstrate she is genuinely remorseful,” he commented.

She pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, while numerous other similar charges were withdrawn.

Reed was sentenced to at least 1 year and 6 months jail time in Newcastle District Court on Friday. Supplied Amy Ziniak

The pensioner was sentenced to three years jail with a non-parole period of one year and six months, which means with time served she is eligible for release in August next year.

The court heard the two met up at her East Maitland home where she told the victim she had been married twice and both her husbands had passed away due to illness, as well two of her sons had died in their 20s.

She spun a lie that one of her husbands had died from an asbestos related illness and she was soon to receive a $1.6 million insurance payout from his death.

But in-fact police believe he died from an unrelated illness two years earlier and there was no settlement.

The pair struck up a close relationship and would talk on the phone three to four times a week, before Reed would start asking him for money.

The court heard there was a long list of transaction that the victim transferred into Reed’s bank account including $3000 in August, 2017, when she suggested they go on a holiday to Queensland, which they never went on and she never paid him back.

From September that year, to July 2018, Reed asked for more money which included more than $40,000 for two house deposits, $30,000 for a car, funds for furniture and Christmas presents, all the while trying to reassure the victim she was due for the settlement and would pay him back.

But the court heard she cut off communication in October 2018 claiming “she did not want to deal with confrontation anymore” when the victim asked when she intended to repay the money back.

Reed was arrested more than two years later at her residence on November 19, 2020, before being charged.