A crooked financial advisor who swindled £170,000 from a Scots widow with dementia has been jailed for three years.
Gordon Couch was convicted of embezzling the huge sum belonging to frail Marjorie Stewart before and after her death in an Edinburgh nursing home. The 57-year-old admitted charging the pensioner up to £1000 a day to read bank statements to her, but claimed she was “happy” with the arrangement.
But a jury last month found Couch guilty and appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday for sentencing, reports the Record. Sheriff Kenneth Campbell QC told Couch he’d “deceived” an “elderly lady who trusted you implicitly”.
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Jailing Couch for three years, the sheriff added Couch had exploited Marjorie over a “prolonged period” while in a “position of trust”. Earlier his solicitor, Stuart Munro, said Couch’s employers in Hong Kong were willing to take him back in a “non-client facing” role if he avoided jail.
During the trial, Couch admitted levying £197-an-hour fees on vulnerable Marjorie, who died aged 91 in 2013. The crook claimed the retired maths teacher was aware he was charging her massive amounts, adding she viewed it as “good value for money”.
But the jury unanimously found him guilty of embezzling Marjorie’s fortune while holding power of attorney over her affairs and acting as executor of her estate. The shameless thief claimed the pensioner used up “40 per cent” of his time as a financial advisor even though she held only a basic portfolio of shares and premium bonds.
The court heard Couch lied in court documents after Marjorie’s death, pretending she still had £75,000 in assets when he’d drained almost everything into his own bank account. When the beneficiaries of her will, including relatives and charities, began asking questions about their bequests, the trial heard Couch fled to Hong Kong under the pretence of taking up a finance job.
His ex-wife Kerry, 53, told the trial she reported Couch to cops over the missing cash in 2016 after learning he’d joined an online dating service. Police swooped on board a flight landing at Heathrow Airport to arrest Couch in 2019 after he returned to the UK for a business conference.
The court heard Marjorie grew up in Aberdeenshire before moving to Kenya with her husband where they lived for four decades. The couple, who had no children, moved back to Edinburgh before her husband’s death in 1998, and they employed Couch as an independent financial advisor.
Giving evidence, Couch told how he changed his Edinburgh-based firm, called Utopia Financial Planning, from a commission-based service to one charging fees instead in 2007. Working with 80 clients, he said Marjorie freely signed up to his highest tier of fees - his £5000-a-year “world class” package - which included four annual meetings with him to offer money advice.
Couch took the witness stand and claimed it was Marjorie’s wish he be paid large sums for simple tasks. The dad-of-two told how he charged her for checking the heating in her flat and pocketed fees for visiting her in hospital.
Brazen Couch, of Penicuik, Midlothian, had personal debts of £117,000 in 2008 when he entered a debt management plan. He was convicted of embezzling around £170,000 between April 2009 and May 2015.
He is also being pursued for more than £760,000 under proceeds of crime laws. On Thursday the sheriff set a further hearing on that matter for next month.
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