Stanley James Darling scammed a man in his 70s of more than $111,000

When this Toowoomba man found out an associate had conned an elderly man out of hundreds of thousands, he didn’t try to stop her. He instead joined the scam and cost the man $111,000 more.

A Toowoomba man who ripped off an elderly pensioner of $111,000 has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Stanley James Darling, 44, was an associate of Dorothy Edna Weribone who had scammed the same victim out of more than $240,000.

Weribone, 47, had used internet dating sites to “catfish” five older men out of thousands of dollars by using false names and stories between mid-2015 and 2020.

However, instead of stopping her from such serious offending, Darling had “jumped on board” and used false names and similar tactics to scam the Victorian man in his 70s out of more than $111,000 over two periods from May 2015 to December 2016, and December 2016 to December 2020, Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso told Toowoomba District Court on Tuesday.

Darling had played to the victim’s kind nature and, like Weribone, had concocted stories that he was at times homeless, couldn’t make rent, that he had to go visit relatives and other such false stories, she said.

The victim, who was aged between 70 and 76 at the relevant time, used all of his superannuation and savings and had borrowed money which he provided to the scammers, the court heard.

Darling told the victim that he had been left a farm in the Warwick district that he intended selling so he could pay back the man, which again was a false story.

Darling had used the money for alcohol, gambling and the purchase of a number of cars, the court heard.

Ms Kelso described the offending as “reprehensible”.

“Mr Darling took advantage of a lonely old man,” she told the court.

The offending came to light when the victim became suspicious of Weribone and it was during the police investigation of her that officers were led to Darling, she said.

Darling had no capacity to repay the victim, she told the court.

With the victim listening to the court proceedings by phone from Victoria, Darling pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud above $30,000.

His barrister Steve Kissick said Darling was a disability pensioner who suffered epilepsy and who now lived in Toowoomba though he had grown up in St George.

His client lived in a home provided by the Yellow Bridge organisation who had told him the house would be available for him when he got out of jail provided he wasn’t away more than nine months, he said.

His client was on a pension and had no capacity to pay restitution, Mr Kissick said.

Judge Ken Barlow QC said Darling’s offending was protracted and serious.

“You deliberately set out to defraud a vulnerable person,” he told Darling.

Judge Barlow sentenced Darling to 42 months in jail but ordered the term be suspended after nine months for 42 months.

Weribone was last year sentenced to four years in jail, suspended after 10 months with 30 months probation.