A GRANDMOTHER told how a Bridport con-artist promised to buy her house and stole her money when her back was turned.

Ann Moran thought she had sold her property when Jonathan Mark Byrne came to see it claiming he worked for an investment bank and had ready cash to buy it.

Byrne told her his wife had died in a car crash and he wanted to resettle with his daughter close to her grandparents.

When Mrs Moran told him she had just lost her son he gave her a hug and consoled her before looking around her house and taking £50 from her handbag.

Byrne, aged 22, of East Street, was jailed for 28 months for stealing cash and bank cards during a series of visits to house vendors in Weymouth and Dorchester.

Mrs Moran, 64, said he came to see her house in Hornbeam Close in Weymouth with an estate agent and later arranged a second visit during an evening on his own.

She said: “When he arrived he was very casual. He leaned on the door frame and gave his name as John Paulson.

“He had this American accent which I could not place. Then he told me his wife had died in a car accident and left him with a six-year-old and he was moving here as it is where her grandparents live. He wanted her to go to Sunninghill Preparatory School.

“He even told me what the fees were.”

Mrs Moran sympathised with Byrne and told him how her son had died in January from cancer.

She said: “He actually gave me a hug as if to say we are in this together. That’s what I can’t forgive him for.”

Byrne asked to look around on his own before asking to borrow a tape measure.

Mrs Moran thinks this is the point that he took the money from her handbag.

She added: “He said he worked for Goldman Sachs so I thought ‘what are you doing looking at a place in Weymouth.’ “He said ‘don’t worry I’ll pay the full asking price I love it.’ “He didn’t have to do that. He could have said after the second look that he wasn’t bothered.

“But no, he got our hopes up as well.”

He told her he wanted to buy her house and she spoke to another estate agent about a house she and her husband Alex wanted.

When she told them she had a cash buyer they informed her they had heard of a man pretending to have cash who stole from properties he viewed. Mrs Moran then realised she was £50 short.