Dad lost £500k gambling online ...and only told his family when he faced prison
A SON has spoken about the devastating effects of online gambling after his addicted father lost £ 500,000 and ended up in jail.
David Bradford, 61, kept his all-consuming habit secret from his family, only telling them he had a problem as he was about to face court on fraud charges.
Then when he was locked up for stealing from his employer, his wife was hit with the bombshell that he had re-mortgaged their house for £300,000.
Son adam, then 21, had to step in as head of the shattered family while his disgraced father served his two-year jail term.
The family, from Sheffield, still face the prospect of losing their home. But father and son have now joined forces to campaign for greater controls over online gambling.
adam, who runs a marketing business, said his father’s jailing in 2014 devastated his mother Denise, 66, and twin brothers alex and ryan, now 22.
‘I’m the son who, at 21, became the dad,’ he said. ‘I had to look after my family, help us to survive and spend every penny I had on keeping a roof over our heads.
‘It was a toxic situation. I lost my youth, and the chance to be a normal 21-year-old.’
adam, 25, said he sank into a suicidal depression as the family’s previously comfortable middle class lifestyle was changed forever. his father, a former finance controller and school governor, spoke about his addiction in 2015 following his release from prison. he said he was ‘like a hamster on a wheel, thinking that a big win was just around the corner’.
reflecting on his childhood, adam now recognises his father’s gambling habit was there for all to see. he regularly switched jobs in an attempt to maximise earnings.
‘I didn’t know what was happening at the time, but I now realise that was him trying to make as much money as possible to fund his habit,’ adam said.
‘When I think back on our family holidays, I remember him spending hours in arcades on the slot machines. Being so young, I just thought that’s what adults did.’
With debts mounting, David took out payday loans and credit cards – even re-mortgaging the family home without anybody knowing. The house was bought for £30,000 in 1983 and is now worth £250,000, but re-mortgaged for £300,000.
Desperate to cover his tracks, he turned to crime, swindling £50,000 out of his company by submitting false invoices – a fraud which went unnoticed for around 18 months. ‘The rest of the family had no idea that we were in a crippling situation, that was about to explode in our faces,’ adam said.
‘The day before everything happened, Dad was talking to my mum for ages in the kitchen and I got this sense things were horribly wrong.
‘he then came in to my brothers and I, saying, “I’ve got something to tell you. I need to go to court tomorrow.”’
In the wake of his father’s imprisonment, adam’s mental health suffered – and he later made an attempt on his life. Working tirelessly running his business to keep the family afloat, he found the constant struggle too much. he finally got help for his depression three months after his father was sent to prison.
Now the father and son, heartened by legislation to cut the maximum stake at fixed odds betting machines to £2, want a crackdown on internet betting as well. They plan to deliver a letter to Culture Secretary Matt hancock on the issue.
The family are trying their best to ensure David does not return to his old ways.
‘There’s no support out there for families like mine, and that needs to change,’ adam said.
‘The effects of this will last a lifetime. We’ve lost friends because people have struggled to accept that we genuinely had no idea. But a gambler doesn’t come home drunk or high. Mum and Dad didn’t have a joint account and, like any addict, he went to great lengths to cover his tracks. We will help him all we can, but he also has to help himself, which I think he’s doing.
‘We check his bank account every day, but we can’t be his keepers.
‘and it does make my heart sink that he can log on at any time and make another bet.’
‘We can’t be his keepers’