Charmaine McAllister, 37, has posed as a police officer, bank worker, soldier and most recently an advertising executive from Horse and Hound magazine to scam people (Picture: Cavendish)
A mum-of-three who has conned dozens of people out of more than £100,000 during a decades-long campaign of fraud was branded ‘morally bankrupt’ by a furious judge as he sent her back to prison.
Charmaine McAllister, 37, has posed as a police officer, bank worker, soldier and most recently an advertising executive from Horse and Hound magazine to scam money out of people.
She blew the stolen cash on luxury cars, cosmetic surgery, hotel stays and designer clothing, Chester Crown Court heard.
Judge Steven Everett told McAllister, who has racked up convictions for a staggering 220 offences over the past 21 years: ‘You are truly a despicable person.’
Using her trusted ruse of working for Horse and Hound, McAllister duped one of the magazine’s advertisers into handing over their card details on the phone.
She then used them to buy a £6,500 Hyundai car from a dealership in Warrington before selling it to a dealer in Chorley for £4,000 in cash.
The scammer used the same card details to purchase a BMW for £2,895 from a dealership in Ellesmere Port and brazenly swiped one of the employee’s cards when she picked up the car.
That card was then used to pay for her shopping at Sainsbury’s, along with a night’s stay at a Ramada hotel and several items on Gumtree.
The judge called McAllister ‘one of the most morally bankrupt women he had ever come across’ (Picture: Charmaine McAllister/ Cavendish)
McAllister has 15 aliases, has been in court 50 times and has convictions for more than 200 offences (Picture: Cavendish Press)
In a similar scam, she used a stolen card from Ireland to get a £4,995 BMW 1 Series car from a dealership in Crewe before selling it onto another garage in nearby Deeside for £2,500.
Laura Knightly, prosecuting, told the court: ‘All the money made from the fraud has gone.’
But luckily most victims were refunded by their bank.
McAllister, from Boston, Lincolnshire, who also goes by the name Charmaine Rowan and 15 other aliases was jailed for another 15 months after she admitted 10 fraud offences and one theft.
The stretch will be added to a 40 month jail term she is currently serving at a jail in Peterborough for a series of other stings.
McAllister first went to jail in February 2008 for nine months after she stole a handbag containing £600 from a horse rider at an equine event.
She was then locked up again in 2011 when she stole the purses of two more female riders before using their credit cards to withdraw £4,500.
The judge said McAllister, pictured in a 2018 mugshot, has a record ‘as bad as I have seen’ (Picture: Cavendish Press)
In 2015 she was jailed for over four years, made subject of a Criminal Bahaviour Order banning her for all equestrian events and branded a ‘plague to the whole horse industry’ after raiding unattended boxes while riders were competing and offering non-existent riding accessories for sale.
She was locked up again in 2018 after posing as a Horse and Hound saleswoman to con the magazine’s advertising clients.
In all she has been in court 50 times, and has tried to duck several appearances by producing fake doctor’s notes and even lied that her mum had died to avoid the dock.
Jailing her, Judge Everett said: ‘This is a truly tangled web and totally brazen dishonesty. You are a sophisticated fraudster to be sure, a fraudster without any morals whatsoever, without any regret about what you do.
‘You are one of the most morally bankrupt persons I have ever come across. Nothing is too small for you to steal or defraud and I’m not convinced that you are going to change.
‘As time goes by you just get longer and longer prison sentences that will protect the public for a little while.
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‘You must be thinking about fraud whenever you come out of prison, time and time again.
‘You have lied to the courts about what you are going to do, lied about your illnesses and you have even stolen from your own mother in the past. You are truly a despicable person.
‘I am quite sure that you will say anything you can to try to reduce your sentence so that you can get out and carry on and just help yourself.’
Defending, Myles Wilson said: ‘She made admissions in an interview and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity – but I should say on her behalf I cannot disagree with Your Honour’s assessment of her.’
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‘You are one of the most morally bankrupt persons I have ever come across.’
