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Data from The GDELT Project · Reviewed and interpreted by RSRC

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Reported case

Shamed ex-council leader who conned lover out of £188k in romance fraud appeals jail

www.glasgowtimes.co.ukEnglishObserved 2026-03-11
Included for relevance; source claims are not independently verified. This record is based on saved titles and descriptions unless a separate deeper-reading assessment is explicitly shown. Observation dates are not incident dates. An arrest or charge is not a conviction.

Story groups for this report

Contextual research groupings, not verified case membership.

How to read this record

Andrew Polson is reported to appeal after imprisonment involving romance fraud and charity embezzlement. The £188,000 and outcomes remain attributed; an appeal is not acquittal.

Places in the available evidence

No geographic role could be established from the available text.

Unlisted locations remain unknown. Nationality, language and web address alone do not establish where a scam happened.

Themes reported in the text

These labels describe the available reporting. “Not reported” does not mean a harm did not happen. A theme's stage applies to that statement, not every claim in the article.

Relationship-based deception

unspecifiedreported occurrenceStage: completed
Interpretation details
Scope
mixed fraud
Person or institution described
alleged offender
Link to romance fraud
mixed scheme
Causal claim
not established

Financial and property harm

cashreported occurrenceStage: completed
Interpretation details
Scope
mixed fraud
Person or institution described
targeted person
Link to romance fraud
mixed scheme
Causal claim
not established

Justice proceedings and outcomes

sentencereported occurrenceStage: completed
Interpretation details
Scope
mixed fraud
Person or institution described
authority
Link to romance fraud
mixed scheme
Causal claim
not established
All 24 assessed themes
ThemeAssessment
Blame, stigma and responsibility framingnot reported in available text
Homicide and lethal violencenot reported in available text
Disruption of daily lifenot reported in available text
Financial and property harmreported in available text
Suicide and self-harmnot reported in available text
Family and social harmnot reported in available text
Protection or recovery of assetsnot reported in available text
Policy and regulatory responsenot reported in available text
Justice proceedings and outcomesreported in available text
Coercion and exploitationnot reported in available text
Psychological distressnot reported in available text
Blackmail and extortionnot reported in available text
Help, reporting and preventionnot reported in available text
Physical or sexual harmnot reported in available text
Investment pretextnot reported in available text
Technical facilitationnot reported in available text
Investigation and operational responsenot reported in available text
Organization and division of labornot reported in available text
Relationship-based deceptionreported in available text
Involvement in other offendingnot reported in available text
Continued or renewed targetingnot reported in available text
Prior circumstances and claimed vulnerabilitynot reported in available text
Institutional barriers or harmful responsenot reported in available text
Moving money for a schemenot reported in available text

Connected reporting

Only direct reviewed connections are shown. Shared wording is weaker evidence than a supported case connection. A connection through a third article does not establish that two reports concern the same case.

Shared wording

Ex-Tory council leader jailed over £188,000 romance fraud

Explicit AndrewPolson/EastDunbartonshire former council-leader/72-year-old partner/property-fraud context supports one qualified proceeding family. Keep GBP186k versus188k versusnear200k combinedcharity/partner totals and22-month term versustruncated22… source-specific. The unnamed EastDunbartonshire/TinderSwindler comparison source is qualified role-matched coverage, not SimonLeviev. Named2026appeal is a reported development of the jailed proceeding, not a new conviction.

Shared wording

Former Scots Tory council leader convicted of £188,000 fraud

Named Andrew Polson and Ann Kelly, property-profit pretext, distinctive former council leader and GBP188,000 conviction reporting connect the older sentence and preserved appeal family. Sparse unnamed council-leader variants are qualified repeated coverage. GBP186,000, GBP188,000 and nearly GBP200,000 partner/charity totals remain attributed. The stated May2021–March2022 period belongs to the offence, not the observation or appeal.

Research provenance

1 saved revision. Corrections preserve earlier versions.

A page can change after it first appears. Observation dates record when its URL was seen; they do not prove that the wording assessed here was present on every date.

Record: 8c05c824460294febfec940b60a532d2ae9afb767a5e54e1cb3ea6760b01cbe8
Decision: 1647fd3211e62acab67a2a73e8c160dd614c85bb683940a3a4b2f395cc51b0c2
Current revision: a696684db0a230f257d39fa7706a93badd81aa61e75c28f233d1e204868d08aa

The local research archive retains source hashes, quoted evidence and review records. This collection does not redistribute full publisher articles.