{"id":29297,"date":"2026-05-05T17:08:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/29297\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T17:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:08:22","slug":"greedy-ashford-blackmailer-forced-vulnerable-victim-to-part-with-22k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/29297\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Greedy\u2019 Ashford blackmailer forced vulnerable victim to part with \u00a322k"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A \u201cgreedy\u201d blackmailer who preyed upon a vulnerable man for more than two years to obtain tens of thousands of pounds has been jailed.<\/p>\n<p>Rico Castle, from Ashford, admitted to making an unwarranted demand of money between January 2021 and July 2023.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 902 854\" alt=\"Rico Castle has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for blackmail. Picture: Kent Police\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"OZOHXU1YQLT3XDR7LPUG.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.06\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/OZOHXU1YQLT3XDR7LPUG.jpg\" alt=\"Rico Castle has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for blackmail. Picture: Kent Police\"\/>Rico Castle has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for blackmail. Picture: Kent Police<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old was initially friends with the victim &#8211; who has ADHD and Tourette\u2019s syndrome &#8211; before discovering he had a savings account.<\/p>\n<p>Castle began pressuring him for money. The victim was told it would be paid back, but this did not happen.<\/p>\n<p>Castle\u2019s demands became excessive, asking for increasing amounts of cash and threatening to harm the victim and those he cared about if he refused.<\/p>\n<p>Frightened of potential repercussions for not paying, he continued to hand over the money each time.<\/p>\n<p>In total, \u201cmanipulative\u201d Castle forced the man to part with more than \u00a322,000.<\/p>\n<p>A person close to the victim became concerned about changes in his behaviour, leading to his disclosure and police being alerted on July 7, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Initial enquiries were completed and Castle, formerly of Willesborough Road, Kennington, was arrested. Following a complex investigation, he was later charged with blackmail.<\/p>\n<p>He pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court and, on April 21, was sentenced at the same court to three years and four months\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>Investigating officer PC Ed Pegg said: \u201cCastle is a greedy, manipulative offender who intimidated a vulnerable victim for financial gain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe cared nothing for the distress and anxiety he caused, nor was he concerned about taking tens of thousands of pounds from somebody else.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m pleased that Castle has been given a custodial sentence, and I hope it is of some comfort to the victim to know that he has been put behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose who would seek to exploit others in this way should expect to be made to face the consequences of their crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cgreedy\u201d blackmailer who preyed upon a vulnerable man for more than two years to obtain tens of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1671,141,61,309,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-29297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-ashford","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-kent","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116523073802669901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}