Councillor stole £77k from pensioner couple
He spent some of cash on trip to Ritz Hotel with partner
A FORMER councillor was yesterday convicted of helping himself to a vulnerable old couple’s life savings. Gordon Beurskens claimed Jimmy and Nettie McQue had given him ‘unlimited’ control of their bank accounts so that they could keep their cash ‘below the radar’.
He said the £77,580 he took from the octogenarians was an ongoing ‘loan’ which he intended to repay with interest.
But a jury at Livingston Sheriff Court rejected his excuses and
‘Gordon has taken advantage of us’
returned a majority verdict, finding him guilty of embezzlement.
When the jury’s decision – after more than six hours of deliberation – was read out Beurskens, of Longridge, West Lothian, seemed visibly shaken and blinked back tears.
Moments after his conviction, the ex- councillor f or Whitburn and Blackburn, West Lothian, was hit with a Proceeds of Crime demand from the Crown.
Sheriff Kevin Drummond called for background reports and told 51-year- old Beurskens he would be sentenced later. Bail was continued.
Neither of Beurskens’ victims gave evidence in court during the sevenday trial.
The jury was told that retired ironmonger Mr McQue, who had suffered from dementia, had died several years ago.
Last night friends of the family said 87-year- old Mrs McCue, who had previously suffered a stroke, died in hospital on Wednesday, a day before the jury reached its verdict.
Beurskens had denied using a thirdparty document signed by the couple to drain money f rom the their accounts into his own. He was earlier found not guilty of money laundering after the prosecution withdrew the charge, brought under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
The jury heard evidence from Mrs McQue’s 2008 police statement that she trusted Beurskens so much she would ‘sign anything’ he put in front of her.
She expressed surprise to police that an £8,000 ISA had been cashed in without her knowledge and the money transferred to Beurskens’ bank account. She said: ‘I don’t know why he has got this. I certainly didn’t ask him to do this, as far as I was aware I still had an ISA.’
She also told detectives: ‘I have been gullible. I think Gordon has taken advantage of us. I would have signed anything if Gordon had asked as I had trusted him.’
She added: ‘I did say to Gordon once about his nice new house and his new car. I told him, “My, you are doing well”.
‘I really can’t believe all this. He was so plausible. I don’t know if there’s a word I could use to describe him now. I am disgusted. Gordon has abused our trust when we thought he was being kind.’
The jury heard that Beurskens and his partner, Sadie McMillan, used some of the McQues’ cash for a two-night stay at the Ritz Hotel in London. The bill totalled £1,638, including a £800 tip.
Beurskens served as an ‘Action to Save St John’s Hospital’ member of West Lothian Council but lost his seat in the 2012 local elections.