A crooked monetary advisor who swindled £170,000 from a Scots widow with dementia has been jailed for 3 years.
Gordon Sofa was convicted of embezzling the large sum belonging to frail Marjorie Stewart earlier than and after her dying in an Edinburgh nursing dwelling.
The 57-year-old admitted charging the pensioner as much as £1000 a day to learn financial institution statements to her, however claimed she was “comfortable” with the association.
However a jury final month discovered Sofa responsible and appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court docket on Thursday for sentencing.
Sheriff Kenneth Campbell QC instructed Sofa he’d “deceived” an “aged girl who trusted you implicitly”.
Jailing Sofa for 3 years, the sheriff added Sofa had exploited Marjorie over a “extended interval” whereas in a “place of belief”.
Earlier his solicitor, Stuart Munro, mentioned Sofa’s employers in Hong Kong had been keen to take him again in a “non-client going through” function if he averted jail.
Through the trial, Sofa admitted levying £197-an-hour charges on susceptible Marjorie, who died aged 91 in 2013.
The criminal claimed the retired maths instructor was conscious he was charging her huge quantities, including she considered it as “good worth for cash”.
However the jury unanimously discovered him responsible of embezzling Marjorie’s fortune whereas holding energy of lawyer over her affairs and appearing as executor of her property.
The shameless thief claimed the pensioner used up “40 per cent” of his time as a monetary advisor though she held solely a fundamental portfolio of shares and premium bonds.
The courtroom heard Sofa lied in courtroom paperwork after Marjorie’s dying, pretending she nonetheless had £75,000 in belongings when he’d drained nearly every little thing into his personal checking account.
When the beneficiaries of her will, together with family members and charities, started asking questions on their bequests, the trial heard Sofa fled to Hong Kong underneath the pretence of taking on a finance job.
His ex-wife Kerry, 53, instructed the trial she reported Sofa to cops over the lacking money in 2016 after studying he’d joined an internet relationship service.
Police swooped on board a flight touchdown at Heathrow Airport to arrest Sofa in 2019 after he returned to the UK for a enterprise convention.
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The courtroom heard Marjorie grew up in Aberdeenshire earlier than transferring to Kenya along with her husband the place they lived for 4 a long time.
The couple, who had no youngsters, moved again to Edinburgh earlier than her husband’s dying in 1998, they usually employed Sofa as an impartial monetary advisor.
Giving proof, Sofa instructed how he modified his Edinburgh-based agency, known as Utopia Monetary Planning, from a commission-based service to at least one charging charges as an alternative in 2007.
Working with 80 shoppers, he mentioned Marjorie freely signed as much as his highest tier of charges - his £5000-a-year “world class” bundle - which included 4 annual conferences with him to supply cash recommendation.
Sofa took the witness stand and claimed it was Marjorie’s want he be paid giant sums for easy duties.
The dad-of-two instructed how he charged her for checking the heating in her flat and pocketed charges for visiting her in hospital.
Brazen Sofa, of Penicuik, Midlothian, had private money owed of £117,000 in 2008 when he entered a debt administration plan.
He was convicted of embezzling round £170,000 between April 2009 and Might 2015.
He's additionally being pursued for greater than £760,000 underneath proceeds of crime legal guidelines.
On Thursday the sheriff set an extra listening to on that matter for subsequent month.