Husband an embezzler
A HUSBAND gambled away his sick wife’s life savings.
He set up credit card and loan applications in her name and embezzled £150,000 after the pair married following a whirlwind romance.
A CALLOUS husband is behind bars after embezzling £150,000 from the sick wife he cared for.
Bernard Houston, 53, squandered wife Peggy’s cash at gaming arcades when she suffered a brain aneurysm – weeks after they married.
When her concerned family questioned the deterioration in her quality of life and changes to her appearance they were told the money was “none of their business”.
Eventually Peggy’s family discovered credit card and loan applications, as well as bank statements in her name that he had “concealed” where she couldn’t reach them.
Houston, from Castlemilk, repre- sented himself when he pled guilty at the Sheriff Court to embezzling £150,000 between June 2010 and December 2014.
He also admitted a further four fraud charges of obtaining £11,500 in her name, and attempting to get another £200.
Former care home worker Houston was jailed in 2006 for two months for stealing £2,800 from an 85-year-old with dementia, to gamble with.
Houston and Peggy began a relationship in 2009 and married on May 22, 2010.
Over the period of the charges, her family became suspicious and believed Houston was using her to get money.
When questioned by police he i nitially denied taking any money then admitted that he had “gambled away” the cash on gaming machines.
Sheriff John McCormick told Houston “a custodial sentence is likely” and remanded him to be sentenced next month.