Fraudster fleeced groom and mates out of £8k for non-existent stag do then lied he had terminal cancer to squirm out of it
PALS reached Newcastle Airport to discover flights and hotel rooms hadn't been booked as Martyn Galvin pocketed £8,000
A SCHEMING best man lied to his mate that he had terminal cancer while fleecing him and friends out of thousands for non-existent stag parties.
Martyn Galvin, 30, claimed to be organising stag dos to Prague and York Races for a school friend he had known for 18 years.
Instead, he pocketed the £7,945 he received from the lads and poured it into his own gambling habit and extravagant spending.
The stag group of 17 reached Newcastle Airport to discover no flights or hotel rooms had been booked.
Galvin had falsely told the groom he had been treated for bowel cancer, and that it was terminal, Teesside Crown Court heard today.
Jailing Galvin for 20 months, the area’s top judge said it was one of nastiest frauds he had ever encountered, against 23 victims by a brazen, persistent liar.
“I was beyond devastated,” the betrayed groom later said.
“The fact he could do that to everyone is beyond belief.
“I felt like I was living the script from a soap drama. It tore me apart that Martyn used the most important day of my life to get money.
“I’m mortified that the biggest conman I’ve ever known was the person I asked to be my best man.”
He volunteered to arrange the two stag parties as it was the “best man’s duty”, contacted the groom’s friends and set up a Facebook page.
They were meant to enjoy a three-day trip to Prague in August last year, followed by a trip to York Races in October. As the nuptials neared, Galvin moaned to the groom that he was out of pocket from not getting money from the men.
He claimed he had tests and an operation for bowel cancer and needed radiotherapy.
When he did not attend meetings between the men, he made excuses about hospital visits and bad reactions to medication.
As it was revealed there were no plane or hotel bookings on August 28, the groom still thought it was a “wind-up” or “mix-up”.
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When challenged, Galvin - whose own father died of cancer when he was a teenager - said he was terminally ill with cancer, while maintaining he had booked flights.
He was asked to be best man at his best friend’s wedding before his mate had even proposed to his partner, said prosecutor Jenny Haigh.
Galvin’s mother broke the news to the shocked stag that his best friend did not have cancer as he claimed, reports the.
“I’m sorry,” said Galvin when he was finally confronted days later.
“Cancer, mate,” the groom said.
Galvin, of Yarm, said he was in debt and had planned to kill himself.
He later admitted fraud by false representation between January and October 2015.
Duncan McReddie, defending, said Galvin was truly remorseful and he and his family had saved money to compensate the 23 victims in full.
He told how Galvin had a long-standing gambling addiction which he put above the needs of others.
He added Galvin did “flash the cash” but sank deeper and deeper into debt to an illegal bookie as he chased the “next big win”.
He has since got help for the gambling addiction.
Mr McReddie said the cancer claims were lies, but Galvin did have a “chronic digestive problem”.
Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, told Galvin: “This fraud is perhaps one of the nastiest and meanest I’ve encountered in my time involved in criminal law.
“The fraud involved a string of quite dreadful lies, lies to your best friend, a man who entrusted in you the task and the honour of being his best man.
“To lie as you did so brazenly, so persistently and in such detail about your health, only you know how you could do that.
“You extravagantly were spending, flashing the cash on yourself.”
He jailed Galvin for 20 months and ordered him to pay the full compensation in 28 days.
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