Son jailed after he gambled away his parents’ life savings

A gambler who stole £144,000 from his parents to fund his betting addiction has been jailed.

Jason Rogers, 28, began taking the cash from his parents’ joint account after his father, Richard, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Rogers emptied the TSB account of £54,000 before going on to obtain loans in his parents’ names of around £90,000 after he had been granted power of attorney over his father’s financial affairs.

Rogers, from Belhaven, near Dunbar, East Lothian, cleaned out the account over a four-month period last year before spending the money on the online gambling site Paddy Power.

The situation was only uncovered when bank staff got in touch with Rogers’ mother, Carol, to inquire about the large transactions from her and her husband’s joint account.

When he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month, Rogers admitted stealing £54,000 from his parents’ account and to obtaining a further £90,000 in loans taken out in their names between 1 August and 25 November last year.

He returned to court for sentencing yesterday, where Sheriff Robert Fife told him he took “a grave view” of the offence and that Rogers had “abused the responsibilities placed on him” by his parents.

Sheriff Fife jailed Rogers for ten months.

Previously, prosecutor Aidan Higgins had told the court Rogers’s father had taken early retirement in 2007 and he had received a £37,000 lump sum and a monthly pension of £1,200 to £1,400.

Mr Rogers been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2012 at the age of 57 and all his financial affairs were handed over to his wife and his son.

Rogers then helped his mother set up online banking to deal with matters and he was given a bank card, the PIN and online access to the account.

Mr Higgins said: “The accused’s mother was then contacted by the bank in November 2016 and asked to attend the bank to discuss transactions into her and her husband’s account.

“She was informed effectively her account and the joint account had been cleaned out.”

Mrs Rogers confronted her son over the missing cash and said he admitted “he had spent it on gambling”.

Mr Higgins added: “He went on to say his gambling had got out of control.”

Yesterday, Colm Dempsey, defending, said his client was repaying the stolen cash back at a rate of £300 per month and his family was standing by him by accompanying him to court.