A man without anywhere to live moved into his grandmother's house and spent months bullying the pensioner and stealing her life savings. Simon Fisher cleaned out the 87-year-old's bank accounts, spending the money on heroin, taxi rides, and online shopping. In total he stole almost £47,000 leaving the widow overdrawn and penniless. When he was arrested the defendant initially denied any wrongdoing leaving his grandmother with the prospect of having to go to court to give evidence against him.
Jim Davis, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court in January 2020 Fisher went to his grandmother's house in Glyncorrwg in the Afan Valley and asked if he could stay for a couple of weeks. He said the pensioner had regularly looked after Fisher during his childhood and was aware of the drug issues he had through his life and of his past offending and his periods in prison. The barrister said the pensioner – who lived a "frugal life" on her state pension and her late husband's occupational pension – had also helped him out financially over the years.
Mr Davis said 45-year-old Fisher moved into the house and then began to "comprehensively abuse his grandmother's generosity" by badgering her for cash handouts, using her bank cards, booking taxis, buying heroin with her money, and going online shopping with Amazon. He also moved his partner into the house. The court heard the grandmother would give Fisher her bank cards to do errands for her but he was often reluctant to return them and in the end the pensioner took to hiding them. In response Fisher tried to install CCTV cameras in the house to find out where she was putting the cards. He also kept photographs of her cards and details of their pin codes on his phone.
