Debt-ridden moneyman fleeced dementia client out of £170,000
Crook charged fees for reading her mail
A FINANCIAL advisor embezzled £170,000 from an elderly widow suffering dementia by charging her up to £1000 a day – including fees for hospital visits.
Gordon Couch, 57, admitted levying £197-an-hour fees on Marjorie Stewart in the years before she died aged 91. The crook claimed the retired maths teacher was aware he was charging her massive amounts, adding she viewed it as “good value for money”. Couch continued to fleece Marjorie for reading mail at her bedside in an Edinburgh nursing home when doctors said she was no longer able to understand it. But yesterday a jury unanimously found him guilty of swindling Marjorie’s fortune while holding power of attorney over her and acting as executor of her estate. Couch’s ex-wife Kerry earlier gave evidence against him at his trial in Edinburgh Sheriff Court, branding him a “compulsive liar”. Debt-ridden Couch took the witness stand and told how he charged Marjorie for checking the heating in her flat and pocketed fees for visiting her in hospital.
The court heard Couch lied in court documents after her 2013 death, pretending she still had £75,000 in assets when he’d drained almost everything into his own bank account.
When the beneficiaries of her will, including relatives and charities, began asking questions about their bequests, Couch fled to Hong Kong.
The jury was told Couch took a finance job there as the “net was closing in”, taking his family abroad under false pretences.
His former wife returned to Scotland with their kids while Couch remained in Asia. But with Marjorie’s relatives pursuing her for answers over the missing cash, Kerry, 53, reported Couch to cops after learning he’d joined an online dating service.
Police swooped on board a flight landing at Heathrow Airport to arrest Couch in 2019 after he returned to the UK for a business conference.
Giving evidence, Couch told how he changed his Edinburghbased firm, Utopia Financial Planning, from a commissionbased service to one charging fees instead in 2007.
Working with 80 clients, he said Marjorie freely signed up to his highest tier of fees – his £5000-a-year “world class” package.
Brazen Couch – who had personal debts of £117,000 in 2008 when he entered a debt management plan – described charging a £197 “hourly rate” for work on accounts.
Couch, of Penicuik, Midlothian, said he would sometimes be at Marjorie’s home for up to four hours, charging her £788 plus another £197 to cover his one-hour return drive.
Fiscal depute Jack Caster, prosecuting, asked Couch if “charging £1000 to read a simple bank statement for four hours was good value for money”.
Couch replied: “Marjorie seemed to think it was good value for money.”
He claimed she was still “sharp” in the months before being hospitalised after a fall in January 2012.
Marjorie was found to have heart disease and “cognitive impairment”, and spent the next 18 months in care before her death. A doctor ruled Marjorie was “incapable” of making financial decisions due to dementia and Couch was granted power of attorney over her affairs.
Mr Caster said Couch transferred £60,000 in 2012 from Marjorie’s bank account to his own personal one for “visiting an old lady in hospital to read bank statements” she couldn’t comprehend. The prosecutor added: “You were absolutely rinsing her.”
The court heard £195,538 was transferred from Marjorie’s account into Couch’s between April 2009 and May 2015.
Mr Caster asked if Marjorie was “happy” some £200,000 in assets he’d been trusted to help her grow had dwindled to around £5000 at the time of her death in September 2013, almost solely because of his “fees”.
Couch said: “She got what she wanted.”
Mr Caster said: “You stumbled across a golden goose. You took all her money while you were in a position of complete control.”
Couch was convicted of embezzling around £170,000 between April 2009 and May 2015. Sentence was deferred until next month.
Majorie seemed to think it was good value GORDON COUCH ON CHARGING £197 AN HOUR FEES