Gambling addict Jarrad Garth cons pensioner out of $200k
A pensioner swindled out of nearly $200k by a dodgy landscaper died before the conman was brought to justice after blowing the money on the punt.
South East
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A dodgy landscape gardener introduced to a pensioner by her son who was his “drinking buddy” stole almost $200,000 from the elderly woman that he blew on the punt
Jarrad Garth, 43, of Mornington Peninsula, was found guilty in March on a charge of obtaining by deception and was sentenced in the County Court on Tuesday to a minimum of 20 months’ imprisonment.
The father-of-three befriended Suzanne Reeve, who had since died, and fleeced her throughout 2020 after the pensioner sold her Balnarring house and moved into a retirement village in Bittern with $343,680 in her savings’ account.
Ms Reeves was introduced to Garth by her son Patrick who was his “drinking buddy” at The Heritage Balnarring.
Garth did landscaping work for the woman, and when Covid hit, he began asking her for money to pay for rent, food, fuel, to fix his truck, buy landscaping business and other reasons.
“My National Australia Bank account went from a balance of $340,000 in February 2020 to $39.98 on the 26th of February, 2021. Without Jarrad Garth taking my money, I’d still be well off,” Ms Reeves told police before she died in 2022.
Her daughter went to police after checking her mother’s bank balance.
Judge Angela Ellis said Garth preyed on a vulnerable victim at a time of great loneliness.
She said an aggravating factor was the fact that he was on a community corrections order, imposed in 2019, for similar offending.
“You cultivated a relationship with her and exploited her sympathies for you to your advantage. Your conduct ultimately became predatory,’’ Judge Ellis said.
“You’ve never made any attempts to repay the money, even after on occasions when you clearly won money by gambling.”
Mornington Peninsula detectives tracked Garth, formerly of Balnarring, to a Coffs Harbour address where he was arrested in January 2022.
“Even when you moved interstate, you continued to seek money from her offering excuses and assurances to persuade her to loan you more money,” Judge Ellis said.
She said while she accepted that Garth’s PTSD would worsen in custody, the seriousness of his offending called for a custodial sentence.
Garth was sentenced to a maximum of two years and two months’ imprisonment.
