A callous son left his elderly mother with no food or heating by dipping into her savings as she battled dementia.
Gordon Stewart was left in charge of 94-year-old mum Mary's finances after she fell ill but soon began using the pensioner's finances for his own ends. Stewart, 58, often left little food in the house for his mother and on occasions carers found her huddled under a blanket due to the freezing temperatures at her home in Ormiston, East Lothian.
The coach driver was said to have been regularly spending Mary's cash on items such as road tax, petrol and fast food orders. Stewart appeared for sentencing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday after previously admitting to carrying out a fraudulent scheme by using his mother's money for himself between April 2018 and January 2019.
Solicitor Julie Torley said her client had been "ill-equipped" to handle the responsibility of being in control of his mother's finances but has shown "a great deal of insight" into his offending. Ms Torley, defending, added Stewart was "apologetic and remorseful" and had received online threats from locals following his guilty plea last month.
Sheriff Douglas Keir said this was "a very sad and unpleasant case" and acknowledged Stewart had been deemed as "a low risk of reoffending". The sheriff sentenced Stewart, from Eyemouth, Berwickshire, to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work in the community to be completed over the next 18 months.
Previously the court was told Stewart was granted power of attorney over his mother's finances and was in charge of making sure her needs were paid and cared for. Fiscal depute Gillian Koren said Mary Stewart would regularly "run out of bread" and her son would tell her he was "too busy" to do a shop for her.
The fiscal added concerned carers had to pay for food for the elderly woman out of their own pocket. The court also heard the pensioner's home was regularly "freezing cold" as Stewart was not putting enough money in the meter.
Mary was diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's in 2018 and a medical assessment found she had "extremely poor short-term memory and did not know who was managing her money". An investigation into her finances showed money had been used to pay for her son's petrol, road tax, and fast food leading to Stewart resigning his position as power of attorney in December 2018.
Weeks later Stewart was then seen taking his mother to her local bank on several occasions in bids to withdraw more money from her account. Ms Koren said alert bank staff became concerned and reported the matter to the police.
The fiscal added a total of £2000 was taken from his mother's account by Stewart and the offence was carried out while Mary was aged 94 and 95. Mary, known to her friends as May, died in April 2020.
Stewart admitted to forming a fraudulent scheme to use funds from Mary Stewart's bank account while she did not have the capacity to consent and he did not have the authority to use the funds for his own personal use between April 1, 2018 and January 29, 2019.
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