FRIEND’S FRAUD LEFT SOLDIER HOMELESS
Man serving abroad was evicted and had to sleep on streets on return after £5,000 theft from account:
ANORTH Wales soldier was left homeless after a friend stole £5,000 from his bank account while he was serving abroad.
When Bradley Bolding returned to Anglesey he ended up living homeless and struggling to buy food because of his friend’s crime, Caernarfon Crown Court heard.
Elliott John Patterson, 23, of Newry Street, Holyhead, was jailed for one year and 10 months after he pleaded guilty to fraud and theft.
The court heard that Mr Bolding had asked Patterson to look after his house in Holyhead while he was on deployment.
But between July 14, 2018, and July 31, 2019, he committed fraud by making a false representation.
He opened a bank account and made 18 transfers from Mr Bolding’s account into his own.
He also admitted stealing £5,063.72 from the complainant on July 14, 2018.
Prosecutor Brian Treadwell told the court Mr Bolding had noticed he was running out of money while serving as a soldier and had to ask for food slips.
The situation came to the attention of his sergeant.
They discovered that plained transfers were made from his account.
The matter was reported the Santander bank and to police.
At first Patterson denied the offences and said Mr Bolding was trying to “frame” him, the prosecutor said.
Patterson said Mr Bolding had unexbeing
to the made the transfers himself.
But investigations revealed the transfers were fraudulent and the “common factor” was Patterson.
The court heard that Mr Bolding was evicted from his Holyhead home.
When he returned from the army he ended up sleeping on the streets for three nights around New Year.
Her Honour Judge Nicola Jones said Mr Bolding himself had even been spoken to by police and suffered from depression and anxiety.
One aggravating feature was that he had been wrongly blamed for the financial problems.
Mr Bolding had been “serving his country on deployment”.
Patterson was jailed for 22 months for fraud, and 12 months for theft, to run concurrently.