Man jailed for 20 months after using Grindr to extort money from older man
Jayson Hastie used the hook-up app and impersonated a police officer to extort money
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
A man has been jailed for 20 months after using Grindr to extort money from an older man.
Jayson Hastie, 25, from Albion Park in Australia, used the hook-up app with the name ‘Alex’ and started talking to an older man.
After exchanging a number of sexually explicit messages during a two week period, they arranged to meet in a secluded beach location near Shellharbour.
However, according to the Illawarra Mercury, a friend of Hastie’s met the victim and a short while later Hastie turned up and told the man he was a police officer.
He said: “You have been pinged.”
Hastie claimed that he had a tracker that would bring other police officers to the location and demanded that the man withdraw AU$2,000.
The victim agreed and drove to a cash point to withdraw the money and agreed to give Hastie a weekly payment to stop him sharing his messages with anyone else.
Hastie then allegedly told the man: “If you ever do this again, I’ll find you and break your legs.”
The 25 year old originally faced charges of kidnapping but in a plea deal, it was dropped and he pleaded guilty to charges of demanding money with menace and impersonating a police officer.
He was sentenced to 20 months in jail with a non-parole time of nine months. Hastie has reportedly lodged a severity appeal.