A former council leader who compared himself to the Tinder Swindler amid a £188,000 romance fraud has been jailed for 22 months.
Andrew Polson, 53, duped his partner into handing him the cash in a property scam between May 2021 and March 2022.
The former East Dunbartonshire Council head convinced the woman that they would own homes together which would be refurbished and sold or rented out for profit.
However, the then-Conservative politician put his sole name on the title deeds of two properties without telling her.
Polson also used money his partner transferred into the company accounts for property repairs to fund his lifestyle, which included trips and his mother-in-law’s birthday party.
Meantime, Polson – who was the director of charity radio station Revival FM – used their bank card to pay for an outing to a casino and refurbishments for one of the properties.
Polson – who now sits as an independent – was found guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court of defrauding the woman.
He was also convicted of embezzling £9,018.47 from Revival FM.
Sheriff Paul Reid told Polson at Wednesday’s sentencing: “The fraud you perpetrated on her was calculated over a long period of time.
“She believed that she had a close loving relationship and was under your spell – she believed you would look after her.
“She considered she was dealing with someone honest, reliable and worthy of her confidence.
“You devised a dishonest scheme to ransack not only her emotions but her finances for your personal gain.
“I am quite satisfied that the only option available to me is custody to mark the consequences to your victim and to make it clear that anyone who engages in this behaviour and those contemplating it will be caught and dealt with severely.”
Regarding embezzlement, Sheriff Reid stated that Polson’s claim that he could reclaim the money for the station was “ludicrous”.
The sheriff added: “The consequences of your misbehaviour lead to the demise of the organisation.”
Polson was given a three-year non-harassment order, which prohibits his contact with his victim.
He was also disqualified from being the director of a company for five years.
A proceeds of crime hearing to recoup the cash will take place in March next year.
The court previously heard that Polson has known the woman for 24 years having met at church when he was an organ player.
They formed an ‘intimate’ relationship in 2013 which took a break in 2018 as Polson got married but resumed in May 2021.
Polson formed the AA Lettings company with the idea of flipping properties.
The woman told jurors that she “trusted” Polson and did not sign any paperwork to start the business.
The mum-of-three used part of her divorce settlement to pay Polson £40,500 which she believed was to buy out his former partner’s share of a property in Bellshill, Lanarkshire.
She later gave Polson £146,000 to purchase a home in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire, which she thought would be solely in her name.
Polson drove the woman to a lawyer’s office once the transfer had been made.
She said: “He suggested that I stay in the car which now seems ludicrous to myself.
“He ran in to seal the deal. Unknown to me, he put the property in his name.”
The woman recalled a conversation in which Polson, who then lived in Glasgow’s Mount Vernon, allegedly wanted to stay in the Bearsden property as he needed a residence there for the upcoming council elections.
She claimed that Polson told her “don’t be ridiculous” at her suggestion that he should pay her rent to live there.
When asked why she transferred the cash to Polson despite being told it was going to be her property, she replied: “He said it was the easiest way to do it and he would look after me.”
Meanwhile, the woman was also putting in around £200 a month into the AA Lettings account to cover repair costs on the two properties.
The witness stated that she thought that Polson was topping up the bank account as well.
However, when she got access to an AA Lettings bank statement, she found that believed she was funding Polson’s lifestyle.
She said this included his social life, weekends away and his mother-in-law’s 70th birthday party.
She stated that she received no money from the AA Lettings venture.
The woman visited her bank in March 2022 when she had a conversation with one of their employees.
She told her: “I said that Andrew suggested that I watch the Tinder Swindler one night and I watched about five minutes.
“I felt uneasy and started recognising characteristics that had been happening to me.
“Andrew phoned me later that night and asked if I watched it and I said I didn’t finish watching it.
“He asked why and I said that it was not my kind of thing.
“He asked if it reminded me of him as he thought that he was better than the Tinder Swindler.”
The matter was then reported to the police.
The woman stated that her total financial loss as a result of her dealings with Polson was £496,000. The Bearsden property has since been put in her name and is up for sale.
When asked about the emotional impact upon her, the victim replied: “I’m not sure I can put that into words, I’m usually okay with words but it has been immense.
“It’s not so much the financial impact which has been huge and changed my life but the betrayal I have felt and the stuff that was going on behind my back that I was completely unaware of.
“I completely trusted Andrew and it has impacted on my family. It is unforgivable what he has done to my children.”
Jurors also heard that Polson used the bank card from the now defunct Christian charity radio station Revival FM to pay for blinds, tiles and a kitchen for the Bearsden property.
He also used the card to pay £2,500 to the Alea casino near Glasgow city centre in August 2021.
Polson claimed in his evidence that his card and the Revival card were similar and that he used the wrong one.
Prosecutor Sean Docherty told jurors in his closing speech: “Polson breached the trust of [his partner] and took advantage of their close personal relationship.
“He took advantage of his intimate knowledge of her finances and what she was entitled to from her divorce settlement.
“In addition, he breached the trust of the charity and used the funds from their direct debit account for his own expenditure.”
Polson was elected in 2022 but was suspended by the Conservative Party shortly afterwards when the fraud allegations emerged.
He had co-led the council with the Liberal Democrats from 2018 until 2022.
His wife – who was a Lib-Dem councillor – was also suspended from her party amid an investigation.
Gary McAteer, defending, told the sentencing: “All he was saying in evidence and to the social worker in his background report is that this was somewhat of a misunderstanding.”
The lawyer also attempted to persuade Sheriff Reid of giving his client a community payback order instead of a prison sentence.
He said: “There would be humiliation for someone who led himself to a high regard and led with authority.
“It is ironic that if he was given an order and doing the voluntary work, he would suffer humiliation in the same local authority where he led.”
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