Brit couple’s £1.5k holiday kitten rescue

Heartless gang take cash he was saving for granddaughters

RESCUED Ivy and Smidge A KIND couple have spent £1,500 bringing home two stray kittens they found on holiday in Cyprus.

Stacey Thomas, 32, and boyfriend Rich Wyatt, 34, saw the pair among a group of homeless cats near their Aiya Napa hotel.

Naming them Ivy and Smidge, they fed them daily and took them to the vet – and when it was time to fly home they could not bear to leave them behind.

They got a local group to foster them as they sorted passports for the pair and have now brought them home to Plymouth, Devon.

They say their new pets are worth every penny.

Stacey said: “There was no way I was leaving the cats on the street.

“As soon as I started naming the cats, Rich knew we were never saying goodbye to them. They’re part of the family.” PHONE scammers have swindled a 91-year-old ex-policeman and firefighter out of £15,000 life savings.

The gang told John Thompson they were calling from Nationwide Building Society about a security breach and tricked him into transferring three sums of £4,900 into “newer, safer” accounts.

The crooks knew details of John’s transactions and his mother’s maiden name. They even managed to get round his call-blocking software by using a number which matched the emergency number on the back of his card.

Now the Nationwide has told the devastated pensioner they can’t refund the money because he moved it himself rather than having it stolen.

John, an assistant inspector in the Kenya Police Reserve for four years, had been hoping to give the cash to his two granddaughters to help them buy houses. He said: “I do feel rather foolish to think I did this. It was a scam but they were so convincing.

“You wake up in the middle of the night and all you can think about is the fact you have been so gullible and you’ve lost your money.

“I am devastated and think I was rather foolish and gullible to be taken in by such sweet talk. I’m not a young man any more.

“If speaking out stops one other person falling for the same thing then I’ll be pleased I’ve done it.”

Of grandchildren Rosie Curry and Anna Brown he said: “It’s them that have been deprived.

“My life’s nearly over but they are in their mid-twenties and have their lives in front of them and they need a house.”

John, who also worked as an engineer, put the phone down on the fraudsters when they first called.

But they phoned back 20 minutes later using the fake number.

The father-of-one, married to wife Pat, 86, for 26 years, said of the crooks: “They are living on other people’s money.

“They pick on vulnerable people and take a chance. They were extremely convincing.

“I was not scared at the time because I thought I was in good hands.

“But I could not sleep at night afterwards. I had to take tablets.”

John, from Sprotbrough, Doncaster, has spent the last 50 years saving and this year sold a huge model railway set, which took 15 years to build, for £7,000.

Andy Foster, fraud-protection officer JOHN THOMPSON ON HIS FRAUD NIGHTMARE with South Yorkshire Police, said: “Sadly, Mr Thompson’s story is all too familiar.

“I have met countless victims of similar telephone scams. The fact crooks are now able to make it look like they are calling from a local number, or the number of your bank, makes their devious schemes even more convincing.”

John says he has been unable to get a refund from Nationwide as it views the transaction as an “authorised push payment”, meaning he moved the money himself.

New protection was brought in earlier this year for people tricked into transferring money to fraudsters but not all banks are signed up. Under the code, anyone who has taken reasonable care or has an element of vulnerability, is much more likely to receive a refund.

A JustGiving page has been set up to help replace John’s savings.

You wake up and all you think of is how gullible you’ve been