Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Facebook grifter who conned customers with bogus work promises
A FACEBOOK grifter who conned customers out of thousands of pounds for goods and services he never delivered has been jailed. Crooked Edward Townsley promised roof repairs, gardening work, a summerhouse and games consoles to unsuspecting punters online. But after they parted with their cash, he refused to return calls or tried to fob them off with increasingly spurious excuses. Perth Sheriff Court heard a community of Townsley’s victims grew online, while he continued to cheat strangers out of money to feed his drug habit. The 32-year-old, from Auchterarder, was sentenced to 16 months behind bars after pleading guilty to seven charges of fraud committed between March 30 2020 and April 18 2022. Sheriff William Wood told the father-of-two: “The difficulty you have is that you are an inveterate fraudster and a thief. “There’s no other way I can say that.” The court heard Townsley’s first target was a woman in Glasgow’s Bothwell area. “She searched online for a landscape gardener,” said fiscal depute Erika Watson. “On March 30, she contact a company called Drivewise via Facebook. “Messages were exchanged and arrangements were made for someone to visit her property.” Townsley – who introduced himself as “Eddy” – went to the address on April 4. He quoted the woman £2,600 for the job but asked for half of the money as a deposit to buy materials. Ms Watson said: “The delivery date was continually changed, as was the estimated start date. “She felt something wasn’t right. “She checked the Facebook ad again and noticed the business name had changed to Drivemaster.
“She investigated further and discovered numerous reviews from people stating they had been scammed by the company.”