‘Despicably greedy’ care home boss stole millions from rich pensioners

A “MORALLY bankrupt” care home owner who took millions of pounds from wealthy pensioners has been sent to jail for 21 years.

David Barton (64), was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday for what Judge Steven Everett described as the “most brazen” case of fraud he had ever seen.

Barton (left) was found guilty of four counts of conspiracy to defraud, one count of fraud, three counts of theft, false accounting and transferring criminal property after a trial which lasted a year.

Care home manager Rosemary Booth (69) was jailed for six years for three counts of conspiracy to defraud for her part in his scheme.

The court, with a public gallery full of friends and family of victims and defendants, heard that between 1997 and 2013 Barton had taken more than £4m dishonestly from his victims, who were wealthy, elderly residents at the Barton Park Nursing Home in Southport, and had tried to claim a further £10m.

Judge Steven Everett said: “I am struggling to remember anyone as dishonest as him, as morally bankrupt as him.”

Sentencing Barton, he said: “You are a despicably greedy man, a hypocrite who claimed you were caring for the residents.

“I’m quite sure the person you cared for the most is no one but yourself, not even your family, with your insatiable appetite for fancy cars and building your property empire.”

Benjamin Myers QC, prosecuting, told the two-day sentencing hearing that Barton groomed “wealthy, vulnerable and child- less” residents before draining their bank accounts and becoming a beneficiary in their wills.

Among his victims was Patricia Anderson Scott, the widow of former Everton FC chairman Bill Scott, who had £1.4m taken from her.

Welcoming the sentence, Detective Inspector Jon Smith said: “For 16 years, they preyed upon wealthy elderly people, bleeding them of their hard-earned savings and enjoying a lavish lifestyle of fast cars, holidays and multiple properties.”