Man Who Stole £47K from Mother to Cover Gambling Debts Spared Prison

A man spent £47,800 of his late mother’s money to cover his gambling debts while she was away in a care facility. 

Gambling Addict Stole £47K from Mother to Cover Gambling Debts

Gambling addiction has left many people desperate, pushing them to do things they would have otherwise strongly objected to. The case of Gary Evans, 57, is one of those cases. An NHS business consultant, Evans, is going to avoid jail time after appropriating £47,800 from his mother, suffering from dementia at the time, to cover his gambling losses.

The case goes back to 2016 when Evans convinced his mother to give him the power of attorney so that he could look after his mother’s home and assets while she was in a care home. Instead of honoring that pledge, Evans used the money to spiral deeper into gambling addiction, a court in Maidstone Crown confirmed. 

Unwitting of the son’s fraud, the care facility reported missed bills to the Office of the Public Guardian, which investigated and demanded clarity in the matter. Evans admitted to his mother that he had gambled the money away from the account.

However, Evans wasn’t as forthcoming at first. He said that he had only taken £8,000 from his mother’s account, but the actual amount then increased to £38,000. Standing trial, he was handed a 16-month jail term which was then suspended for 18 months, and he was ordered to do 200 hours of voluntary community work. 

Evans has been able to pay back £12,000 of that amount so far, leaving him in debt to his late mother but serving as a fair warning about what gambling addiction can do to a person. Gambling addiction has long been considered a health issue, with scientific debates proving that continuing. 

Thankfully, the United Kingdom is one of the safest places to be if you are a gambling addict, as the National Healthcare System (NHS) operates a Gambling Treatment Service that focuses on addressing the problem head-on.