Airport scammer from County Durham now wanted in Scandinavia
One conman we exposed on Inside Out keeps popping up again and again and now he is spreading his wings even further.
This afternoon I had an email asking about County Durham's infamous airport scammer Andrew Gradon. He goes around European cities pleading for cash to help him get home. You can read the full story on an earlier blog. It was this article that was spotted by a journalist on the .
Our story had an impact back in March as well. I got a call from a Cumbrian Magistrate who'd spotted Gradon whilst he and his wife were on holiday in .
It revealed a new modus operandi for our conman. This time he wasn't hanging around airports but was playing the innocent outside a museum.
To add to his plausibility I'm told he "had to borrow a pen" from a cafe owner in order to write down his bogus contact address. After he'd fleeced his unsuspecting victims of their Euros he added: "oh this isn't my pen, I had better give it back". So he'll make a great deal of not walking off with a biro, but he'll nick what's in your wallet. Nice one Andrew.
Our Cumbrian couple who witnessesed that scam only realised too late that it was Gradon who they'd seen on the show and they got straight onto me to let me know they'd spotted him.
Whilst I can't hop on a plane everytime he's seen ripping someone off, I can at least tell you what he's up to. I along with the are logging reports of his scams.
Here are his known movements since the start of April:
- 01 April Berlin Tegel Airport
- 10 April Berlin Schoenefeld Airport. Scammed: 32 Euros
- 16 May Oslo Airport. Scammed: 250 Norwegian Krone
It seems my nordic journalistic colleagues have picked up on Andrew Gradon's antics. I am waiting with anticipation to see what they have to say about him. Does anybody out there speak Norwegian and want to translate for me? I'll add a link as soon as the article goes online.
UPDATE:
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