A man who worked as a fraud investigator left his grandparents 'destitute' by stealing and spending their life savings on a luxurious lifestyle of 'gambling, escorts, and holidays'.
Foster carers Gerard and Joyce Griffiths needed some help setting their affairs in order, and decided to enlist the help of their grandson Jamie Dunn, who worked for Barclays, to help them out with that.
Instead, after he was granted Power of Attorney over the elderly couple's estate, he stole more than £76,000 from their accounts, leaving them without two pennies to rub together.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that he emptied their accounts, lied to them about planning a travelling excursion to America, and convinced them into taking out high value loans that he then plundered for himself.
The 28-year-old was given financial control over the couple's wealth when he was living with them and Mrs Griffiths - who suffers from Alzheimer's disease - was admitted to hospital in 2017.
Mr Griffiths, who has since died, only found out about what was going on when his bank called him up about the significant sums being withdrawn from the accounts.
In a statement before his death, Griffiths said he was 'chewed to bits' about it all and confronted Dunn, who eventually told him the truth.
He wrote: "I am 77 years old and my wife Joyce is 72.
"We have worked hard all our lives to be comfortable in retirement. We have fostered children for 20 to 30 years and always tried our best to do what was right.
"None of them ever stole from us.
"We took Jamie in when he had nowhere else to go, we didn't ask him for money from him.
"He has completely destroyed the family. We trusted him, he was our grandson and he has repaid us by stealing our life savings.
"If it wasn't for our son Anthony coming to live with us we wouldn't be able to eat. He has literally left us destitute.
"I think Jamie has taken this opportunity to take advantage of us.
"The £10,000 I had put in an ISA was to cover our funerals, I can't even afford to pay for that now."
He added that Dunn's actions were 'unforgivable' and said: "I have never had debt in my life.
"Since this has happened I actually go to bed and get myself really upset about the whole situation.
"I cry thinking about it."
Dunn was sentenced to 28 months behind bars after admitting six theft and fraud charges.
Judge Christopher Prince said: "You spent your grandparents money on gambling, escorts and holidays. You spent it on a lavish lifestyle.
"That you were addicted to gambling may explain why you would spend and lose all of your own money but it does not justify you stealing money from your grandparents so you could continue to gambling and have a lifestyle of escorts and holidays."
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