Jail after crook stole £340,000 from widow
A crooked financial adviser from Shropshire who fleeced a widow out of £340,000 has been jailed for three years.
Christopher Geoffrey Corbett-Evans, 55, took the cash from Rosemary Whittaker and told her he had invested it in different schemes.
Mrs Whittaker had known him for about nine years and trusted him with her life savings, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard. But in fact Corbett-Evans had pocketed the money and used it to maintain his lavish lifestyle.
As Corbett-Evans, of Knowle Sands, Bridgnorth, was sentenced at Shrewsbury Crown Court, Judge Peter Barrie said it was a clear abuse of trust.
"This is a most serious breach of trust," he said. "You gained her trust over many years. When you got into your own financial difficulties, you helped yourself to her money. Nothing will put right the feeling of hurt she must have felt."
In a statement, Mrs Whittaker said the theft meant she now found it difficult to trust anyone.
She said the cash she hoped to earn from the fake investments was earmarked to help her two children, who had both been diagnosed with a hereditary cancer gene.
Corbett-Evans admitted three counts of theft and four counts of forgery at an earlier hearing.
The court heard that Mrs Whittaker lost her husband in 2002 but Corbett-Evans continued as her financial adviser.
Mr Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said that in 2006 Corbett-Evans persuaded Mrs Whittaker to invest £25,000 in Scottish Mutual International.
A couple of months later Corbett-Evans talked Mrs Whittaker into putting another £45,000 into SVM Asset Management, followed by a huge £250,000 investment in a company called Integrity in 2008.
But Corbett-Evans had invested none of the money. It had instead been put into his own bank account.
And in another act of deception, Corbett-Evans took £20,000 from Mrs Whittaker's account. He also forged letters to Mrs Whittaker's banks, requesting that all correspondence about her affairs go through him.
Eventually Mrs Whittaker became suspicious when Corbett-Evans failed to return her calls. She hired another financial advisor, who uncovered the theft.
Mr Peter Cooper, for Corbett-Evans, said his client was struggling financially. He added: "He hoped unrealistically that something would turn for the better and he would be able to return the funds that he had stolen."
The court heard on Friday that Mrs Whittaker should receive about half of the money back when the £625,000 sale of Corbett-Evans' house goes through shortly.
