VANCOUVER -- A man accused of scamming several seniors across Metro Vancouver has been sentenced, Mounties in North Vancouver say.
Donald Robert Quinnell pleaded guilty to 22 counts of fraud, the RCMP said in a brief news release Thursday.
He received a sentenced of 5 ½ years.
The charges stemmed from offences reported in Vancouver, Port Moody and West Vancouver, the RCMP said.
Quinnell was the subject of several previous warnings from police.
In an update in January, Mounties said Quinnell was 52, and a resident of Chilliwack. He was arrested in September on an unrelated Canada-wide warrant, and has been in custody since that time.
Officers in multiple municipalities warned elderly residents to be wary of Quinnell, whom they described as well-dressed and well-mannered.
It was alleged in last year's warnings that he approaches lone elderly people under the pretense of offering help. Many of the victims were targeted in grocery store parking lots and outside residences, police said.
"In some cases he says he has locked his keys out of his car and needs help, in others he offers to help carry groceries," North Vancouver RCMP said in a warning issued in the summer.
"His goal is to win the trust of his victims. Once he has their trust, he works his way into their car or home, and then quietly steals their wallets, purses and other valuables."
Sgt. Peter DeVries said at the time there was no apparent physical threat to victims, but that he "uses their goodness as a distraction… It's manipulative and deplorable."
