Lancaster gambling addict stole £30k of his parents’ cash as they lay dying in nursing home

Gambling addict Steven Lawrence helped himself to the couple’s savings after being given Power of Attorney when they became too ill to manage their own affairs.

The city’s Crown Court heard the 59-year-old made regular withdrawals and spent the cash on shopping, betting and leisure. He even carried on milking their bank accounts after the couple had passed away.

And the crime was only discovered when his brother became suspicious of their dwindling finances and called in lawyers to investigate.

Lawrence, of Dolphinholme Mill, near Galgate, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by mismanaging his parents’ affairs between 2018 and 2020.

He was given a 15 month prison sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Heather Lloyd told him: “Goodness knows what would have happened had you not been found out.”

She said Lawrence had come across to friends and work colleagues as “good, kind and thoughtful”. And it was no doubt that was how his parents and brother viewed him when he was awarded Lasting Power of Attorney.

“But you didn’t act in their best interests,” she said. And his brother Neil was “shocked” when it came out later that his sibling was a fraudster and a gambler.

The court was told Lawrence’s parents Linda and Michel put him in sole charge of their finances through when they went into a nursing home and were no longer able to look after their accounts.

By law his duty as guardian of their money was to act in the best interests of the couple when they were in full-time residential care. But he began to withdraw sums for his own use.

But after the couple passed away his brother became “frustrated” by a lack of progress in dealing with the estate.

Lawrence blamed solicitors for the hold up, but Neil grew increasingly suspicious and called in a separate firm of lawyers, at additional cost, to find out what was going on.

What they uncovered was a long line of fraudulent withdrawals by his brother dating back up to four years.

Police were called in and when Lawrence was arrested he told them he thought he was entitled to use his parents’ accounts because he claimed they owed him money.

Despite the stolen cash amounting to £33,000 the family declined to make statements to the court about the impact of their relative’s dishonesty.

Judge Lloyd was told that prior to the fraud Lawrence had been a man of good character. The thefts of cash had been “an abuse of trust”.

Barrister Ellie Watson, for Lawrence, said her client now agreed he should never have taken the money. But she said the fraud had not had any direct impact on his parents and had not affected their quality of life in the nursing home, although it had affected his family because it reduced the size of the estate the couple left behind.

Miss Watson said it was now around six years since the offences were committed and he had spent the time since then “rehabilitating himself”.

He admitted he had a gambling problem and described himself as “having an unhappy relationship with money”.

“It has been difficult ultimately to untangle what had taken place. He had used some of the cash to pay off loans for his business

“He accepts the irresponsible manner in which he dealt with these things.”

She said he had now joined Gamblers’ Anonymous and was travelling all the way to Wigan to attend meetings.

She added: “There is a good side to his character. He has spent a lot of time developing and promoting healthy eating. He leads a relatively simple life. He is working on his gambling addiction.”

She added it was a case which needed to be marked by a custodial sentence, but felt the judge could step back and make it a suspended sentence.

His family, said Miss Watson had indicated that they were “prepared to draw a line under it”.

Judge Lloyd told Lawrence that the offences were serious and despite the requirements of Power of Attorney he had not acted in the best interests of his parents.

And when his brother tried to find out why the probate process was taking so long he had “fobbed him off” and blamed solicitors for the lack of progress. The fact that new solicitors had to be brought in to find out what was causing the delay cost even more money.

But she said that because he had been of previous good character and his parents’ care had not been affected by his fraudulent behaviour she was prepared to suspend the prison sentence.