Yahoo News ‘Wicked’ con woman who posed as police officer to steal pensioners’ life savings jailed for nine years
A con woman who stole the life savings of an elderly couple by posing as a police officer has been jailed for nine years for what a judge called her ”wicked” crimes.
Derrol Flynn punched another of her victims in the face when her cover was blown, before going on to steal one pensioner couple’s £6,000 life savings.
Flynn had fashioned a simple fake identification lanyard, made up of an old mobile phone sim card holder, a coloured piece of plastic, and an old shoelace.
She would quickly flash the ID at her victims, claiming to be a police detective, a private eye, or security worker, and then use her “over-bearing” manner to talk her way into the victims’ homes.
Drug addict Flynn had claimed to some of her trusting victims she was an undercover officer, there to investigate thefts, burglaries, reports of intruders, or to check their security measures.
The 45-year-old was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday for nine years.
The career criminal had served time in jail for similar offences, but quickly fell back into her old ways after her release on licence in January 2017.
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Flynn, formerly of Kitts Green Road, Kitts Green, first talked her way into two homes in Olton, Solihull, near Birmingham, on June 25.
She punched a 72-year-old woman in the face after the victim detected something was wrong, while another elderly woman in a wheelchair was simply shoved aside in her own home while Flynn rifled through the address.
The same day, she tricked her way inside a house in Hall Green, Birmingham, but again fled after the resident became suspicious and refused her entry.
But the next day, she duped a 98-year-old woman, who was a carer for her 105-year-old permanently bed-ridden husband.
Flynn took several envelopes containing cash for each of their great grandchildren, all intended as spending money for a trip-of-a lifetime Christmas holiday to Disneyland Paris – making off with £6,000 in all.
As those circumstances were being read to court, Flynn, appearing on videolink, shouted “that’s a f*****g lie”.
In a victim impact statement, the now 99-year-old victim, said: “I was distraught when I realised the money had gone. It has shattered my confidence.”
She added: “Even now, I lie awake and think about what she has done to me and my husband.”
Testimony from brave witnesses, CCTV and forensics evidence linked Flynn to her crimes and she later admitted one burglary and three attempted burglaries.
Flynn had carried out her offences while out on licence, having been jailed in 2013 for eight years for conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to burgle.
Gareth Edwards, prosecuting, said her latest “spree” mirrored that of her previous crimes, where she had also “pretended to be a police officer”.
During that previous spate of offending, she targeted nine victims aged between 68-99, stealing a total of up to £30,000.
Flynn, who stole to fund a heroin habit, only pleaded guilty to her latest crimes on what was to be the day of her trial earlier in May.
Her barrister, Gerrard Cullen, told the court she was “remorseful”, and her offending was out of “desperation”.
Sentencing her, Recorder Martin Butterworth, said: “You targeted homes you knew would be occupied by very vulnerable victims.”
He added: “I’m quite sure that one of your wicked reasons for selecting the very old and vulnerable was your hope that if caught, they might pass away before you could be tried, or be too frail, anxious or unable because of their age, to provide evidence against you.”
After sentencing, investigating officer Pc Alan Reeves, of West Midlands Police, said he was pleased with the sentence.
He said: “Clearly, (her offending) is abhorrent.
“She’s a thief through and through and will do anything to get what she wants.”
He added: “It is devastating, it’s bad enough that she steals from them – in one particular case the life savings.
“But it’s also the effects it has afterwards, so the lack of confidence – some victims were happy in their life and confident and that just evaporates.”
