A 75-year-old man who pretended to be a financial adviser has been jailed for more than five years.
Peter Grant Holbrook admitted to defrauding nine clients of almost £900,000 ($1.12m, €1.05m) since 2011.
Holbrook, who used the trading name of PGH Associates and Will Associates, was investigated by West Yorkshire Trading Standards (WYTS) following a number of complaints.
He admitted that he had not invested any of the identified victims’ money and had instead used it to fund his online gambling habit.
When issuing the sentence, Recorder Thyne KC said: “You selected your victims who were elderly, or at a time when they were most vulnerable after the loss of a loved one.
“You prepared and presented false documents and pass books furthering your deception. You told lies to victims and their families when they became suspicious. No sentence would come close to undoing the harm you have caused.”
