Daily Mail

Lawyer fleeced grieving widow out of £100,000

Trusted church elder jailed for £1.5m fraud on TWELVE victims

- By Liz Hull

AFTER Mandy Adamson’s husband John was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she desperatel­y needed someone she could trust to get their finances in order.

adviserhig­hly Church recommende­dDavid founder Vaughan andby Jones a friend financialc­ame and seemed the perfect choice.

He befriended the wealthy couple, helped organise their wills and, when Mr Adamson died months later aged 71, he even went to the funeral.

But unbeknown to Mrs Adamson, Jones, 78, was a bent solicitor and crook who was plotting to get his hands on their life savings. Within weeks of company director Mr Adamson’s death he had persuaded the grieving Mrs Adamson to hand over almost £100,000 which he promised to invest for her.

When the charity shop manager enquired about her money he fabricated documents and repeatedly fobbed her off. After years of worry she eventually learned Jones was being investigat­ed by police for fraud. He has now been jailed for six years after Mold Crown Court heard he stole nearly £1.5million from 12 clients over two decades. None of the money has been found.

Last night Mrs Adamson, 76, who has four children, told the Daily Mail that ‘evil’ Jones had betrayed her. She added: ‘I feel disgusted by the way David Jones has deceived me. He knew my husband was dying. That money was my life savings. It is lost to me and to my children now.’

Other victims include the widow of an accountant who said Jones stole her security in retirement when he fleeced her of £270,000 while her husband was dying of dementia. A teacher’s family were robbed of a £250,000 inheritanc­e.

Some of Jones’s clients were left struggling to pay nursing home fees and mortgages, while others had suffered ill health and were on the breadline because of his deception, the court heard. Jones, who was a founder member of the Evangelica­l Church in Newtown, Powys, mid-Wales, used his standing in the community to persuade members of his congregati­on to let him handle their probate and financial affairs. He promised to invest their cash offshore in the Channel Islands at better interest rates than they could get on the mainland. In reality he was pocketing the money. Jones had never qualified as a financial adviser and was banned from working as a solicitor in 1991 after being caught stealing from clients. Sentencing Jones, Judge Niclas Parry told him: ‘Decent people felt utterly betrayed and astonished by the level of your deception.’ Mrs Adamson’s ordeal began in November 2005 soon after her husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

A friend recommende­d that she ask Jones for help preparing the couple’s wills. He soon befriended the pair, visiting them at their home. And after Mr Adamson died in January 2006 he invited his widow on holiday with himself and his wife.

Mrs Adamson recalled: ‘I used to go to David Jones’s church where he was an elder and played the organ and I was quite friendly with his wife, Faith. On numerous occasions they would invite me back to their bungalow for Sunday lunch after the service.’

On one such visit Jones suggested Mrs Adamson invest more than £97,000 in an account in Guernsey. She agreed and transferre­d the cash.

But alarm bells began ringing when she failed to receive any paperwork. After years of nagging Jones sent her a letter from the head of an investment fund, which police later confirmed had been forged.

Mrs Adamson said: ‘I had to see a counsellor because of my distressed state. I suffered such terrible moments of insecurity and stress because of the deceitful way he played with my emotions.

‘ I spent many nights crying myself to sleep. I am now taking medication to bring down my blood pressure and I’m on antidepres­sants. What made it harder to bear is that he was my friend, the executor of my will and also my power of attorney.’

Jones was given six months to repay the money after pleading guilty to 24 charges of theft and fraud last October. Not a penny had been returned by the time he appeared in court last week.

Jones, whose home is a £400,000 bungalow in Welshpool, did not lead a luxury lifestyle and investigat­ors remain baffled about where the cash went.

Mrs Adamson said Jones’s six-year jail term was not long enough. But she added: ‘He won’t like prison – he was always really fussy about his food.’

‘I often cried myself to sleep’

 ??  ?? Betrayed: Mandy Adamson, also pictured with her late husband John, lost her life savings to David Vaughan Jones, far right
Betrayed: Mandy Adamson, also pictured with her late husband John, lost her life savings to David Vaughan Jones, far right

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom