5 years for greedy gardener who stole £170k from widow
hospital. They discovered she had entrusted him to withdraw money to pay for her shopping. But instead he made 107 withdrawals of £300 each without her knowledge, totalling £32,100.
Mr Ellacott said: “The withdrawals left that account with insufficient funds to deal with matters Mrs Brady needed, to cover bills and things.”
After ransacking her bank account Joy persuaded his victim to cash in investment bond policies her late husband had made with Aviva and pretended to be her grandson in calls with the insurance company.
In November 2015, Mrs Brady cashed in five bonds, which she had with insurance firm Aviva, which totalled £230,000. She then wrote a cheque for £100,000 to Joy.
Mr Ellacott told the court Mrs Brady was frail and hard of hearing and it is likely she did not fully understand what she was doing when she gave Aviva permission for Joy to speak on her behalf.
The following March, Mrs Brady wrote another cheque to Joy for £20,000. Joy also withdrew £12,000 to pay for a Land Rover. He later told police most of the payments were gifts from Mrs Brady.
Joy admitted six counts of fraud and was jailed for five years and one month.
The court heard £43,000 was frozen in Joy’s bank accounts, £15,000 was raised from the sale of his assets and a few thousand was expected to be raised from selling tools he kept in Mrs Brady’s garage.
Speaking after the case, her family said: “We are very hurt. We want others to know how conniving people can be, he was so Mary Brady, right, died this month after being left distraught when she found out that gardener and odd job man Russell Joy, left, had plundered her life savings believable. We thought he was there caring for her but he gave no thought about her.
“Mary lived such a wonderful life and Joy’s cruel actions and his abuse of her trust have tainted that.
“The whole situation has been emotionally draining for everyone, but there is relief at the length of the sentence.
“This was a very ugly end to a very beautiful life. We have wonderful memories of Mary and she will be terribly missed.”
Detective Inspector Andy Dilworth, of Bournemouth CID, said: “Russell Joy is nothing more than a callous fraudster.”