When former New Zealand cricketer Lou Vincent offered to raise money to help a Glasgow family whose teenager had a serious head injury, he didn't expect to end up out-of-pocket to the tune of £10,000 ($20,367).
The husband was a mechanic Vincent hired to fix his camper van. He deposited his cash into a nominated bank account before, according to Vincent, the family scarpered, with the husband also failing to repair his vehicle.
"They showed me a newspaper article about their son, so I think the head injury was legitimate," Vincent says. "I even stayed with the family. They made me welcome but behind the scenes, they were conspiring to take my money.
"In hindsight, it was too good to be true. I found the guy, Gerry Meechan - I'm not sure that's his real name - on a legitimate website for mechanics. I thought I'd do the Kiwi thing of getting the camper van checked out before I bought it. He said 'leave it with me...' He reckoned he'd cleared his diary to get my bus on the road, then he found a Scottish lady to buy my car but it turned out she didn't exist.
lou you got conned
