A nefarious gambling addict by the name of Brian James Wilson scammed an elderly man and took all of his savings. He lied that he was about to invest the money in groundbreaking projects but, in fact, used it to fuel his gambling addiction.

Wilson Took Almost $2M from His Victim

Wilson first met his victim in 2018. Back then, the 82-year-old man was selling his mortgage-free Mount Martha home for $1.6 million. Once the sale was complete, Wilson helped the man move to a retirement village. A few months later, the scam began.

Two months after the victim moved into the retirement home, Wilson started persuading him to help him with his business endeavors. According to the prosecution, the fraud would lie he plans to invest in profitable business ventures and promised the elderly man that they would share the profits afterward.

As a result, the senior man agreed to provide Wilson with the funding he needed. Wilson’s lies varied. One of them was investing in a new product that cleans milk. He claimed that Metricon Homes and Brimbank City Council would pay a lot for this miraculous solution and thus help Wilson and his elderly friend reap significant profits. The aforementioned organizations later said they had never heard of any such products.

In addition, Wilson would sometimes ask his victim to give him a loan for his personal needs. For example, he once asked for $18,000 to loan a car. He never paid this loan back and verbally abused his elderly partner once the latter asked to have his money back. In total, Wilson took over $1.9 million from the elderly man.

Wilson Pleaded Guilty

It later turned out that Wilson never had any plans to actually invest in business endeavors. Instead, he wasted all of his victim’s money on online gambling. The court understood that Wilson had deposited over $2.8 million into sports betting accounts between August 2018 and November 2019. The total bets Wilson placed amounted to a stupendous $18.2 million. His brands of choice included BetEasy, Ladbrokes, Sportsbet and Tabcorp.

Wilson eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of using deception to obtain property and nine counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception.

The victim was devastated to learn he had been lied to. He lamented the losses and the fact that he will never financially recover from Wilson’s fraud. The elderly man even shared that he had tried to take his own life at one point.

The defense announced it will take a deeper look into Wilson’s gambling problems before the case returns to court this November.