A BOGUS millionaire used a dying woman’s bank card to steal £13,000 from her when he was pretending to be out walking his dog.

Tom Avery was the partner of the victim’s daughter and was living with her in Crediton when he stole the cash in 2019.

His girlfriend had power of attorney over her mother’s finances while she was in a care home and had her bank card.

Avery told her he had a £5 million pension pot from a career in banking and said the large sums of money he was withdrawing were down payments on it.

In reality, he was using the bank card to withdraw up to £500 a day while out on early morning dog-walking trips.

He had guessed the PIN number because it was the same as the one his partner used on her iPad.

He stole £13,340 of the victim’s £20,000 life savings and was only caught because he failed to intercept a bank statement which revealed his thefts to his girlfriend.

Avery (60), of Searle Street, Crediton, but currently living in Littlehampton, admitted theft and was jailed for 14 months, suspended for two years by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

He was ordered to pay £2,400 compensation, do 12 days of rehabilitation activities and 100 hours of unpaid community work.

He was banned from contacting his ex-partner or going to her home in Crediton High Street by a five-year restraining order.

The judge told him: “The person you stole from was not your partner, but her dying mother, whose bank card you took when you were supposed to be walking the dog.

“Your partner did not know, so it was doubly dishonest and reduced the amount of money available in care home fees.

“You are someone who had genuine mental health issues at the time but also find it all too easy to be evasive, manipulative and dishonest. It is a very serious offence to steal from a dying woman.”

Miss Francesca Whebell, prosecuting, said Avery was living with his partner in 2019 when he used the bank card to make regular withdrawals of up to £500 a day.

He explained his sudden access to cash by telling her he had a £5 to £6 million pension pot from which he was being given pre-payments.

She only discovered the fraud when she noticed him rushing to pick up a statement from her mother’s bank. She checked it and found a total of £13,340 was missing.

Avery promised to repay the money but eventually agreed to hand himself into the police after admitting he could not do so.

Mr Simon Burns, defending, said Avery had only recently been released from in patient care at a mental unit at the time and is still under medication for anxiety and depression.

He said Avery is truly remorseful and keen to pay compensation out of his Universal Credit benefits.

Mr Burns said it was important to note that the victim’s care had not been affected by the theft of her savings. The thefts had been unsophisticated and crude.

By Court Reporter