A cruel son who fleeced £40,000 from his disabled mum’s bank account so he could impress his new girlfriend with a champagne lifestyle has been jailed for 21 months.
Callous Timothy Longstaff withdrew up to £300 every day to fund his lavish spending spree after agreeing to care for his mum Yvette and and manage her finances.
Longstaff, 36, used the cash to lavish his girlfriend with Dolce and Gabbana watches and whisked her away for weekend breaks in the UK and five star hotels in Paris.
He cheated Yvette, 76, out of a further £24,000 by telling her he was investing in a courier business – which he never set up.
Jailing him at Swindon Crown Court on Monday, Judge Charles Wade slammed Longstaff’s ”gross breach of trust.”
He said: ”Frankly, you frittered the money away. This was a gross breach of trust.
”She placed complete reliance in you to look after her money for her, so much so that it was only when the bank made contact with her and told her what was going on with her bank account that she knew what was going on.”
Longstaff, of Swindon, Wilts., was given complete control of his disabled mum’s finances including account and pin numbers after caring for her for many years.
But in 2008 the bank contacted her after it emerged the huge sum of money was being withdrawn from her account.
She rang police and alter told them she had no idea her account was being plundered and had not checked the balance because she trusted him.
Hannah Squire, prosecuting, said officers quizzed a former girlfriend, who said he was ”free and easy” with his money.
He lavished gifts on her, including a Dolce and Gabbana watch and a trip to Paris where they stayed in a five-star hotel as well as UK breaks in a string of hotels.
Miss Squire said: ”That lifestyle was being funded by the money being taken on a daily basis from his mother’s bank account.”
Longstaff told cops his mother knew what was going on, and that she had complained that his relationship with his girlfriend meant he was devoting less time to her.
He admitted theft of £40,000 and obtaining £24,00 by deception and was given 21 month jail sentences for each to run concurrent.
Tony Bignall, defending, said: ”He is a man who is ashamed of what he has done.”
