Cobb man pleads guilty in $500K scam covering five years

A Cobb County man stole more than $500,000 from a victim in a scam that went on for five years, prosecutors said.

Wesley Ryan Gayton, 35, of Kennesaw, pleaded guilty Thursday in Cobb County Superior Court to elder exploitation and theft, according to a media release from the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office.

Gayton used the ruse that his father was ill and needed the money for treatment and medicine. Also, he convinced his victim to pawn vehicle titles and firearms, prosecutors said. The theft ran from 2010 to 2015.