(Image: Lucy North/PA Wire)
A COURT has heard how two men were left living in squalor and without food after £40,000 was stolen from their bank accounts.
Anthony Newill, now 26, convinced both men – one of them his father, another a neighbour who has since died – to allow him to take control of their finances.
He then spent the cash – £16,500 belonging to his father and £23,500 belonging to his neighbour – on electrical goods, gaming, and other items.
As a teenager, he had done the same to his own grandmother.
Dad was left 'extremely thin and malnourished'
Bradford Crown Court heard that Newill moved in with his father in late 2017 after being evicted from a hostel.
He offered to help his father, who had health problems and suffered from alcoholism, with shopping and paying bills.
But after being given his father’s bank card and PIN number Newill took over the account, spent his father’s money on items for himself, and sent payments to other people and other accounts in his control.
This went on until November 2019 when father realised son was stealing his money and kicked him out of the house.
Prosecutor Joe Purhouse told the court: “In December 2022 [the victim’s] cousin, discovered [him] living in squalor, covered in scabies, extremely thin and malnourished.
“There was no gas and very little electric in his home. [The victim] informed his cousin that, due to Anthony continuously stealing all his money out of his bank account, he had no money for food, gas, or electric.”
The victim’s bank account was eventually secured, and he was once again able to access his cash.
Man then befriended a neighbour
In November 2019, Newill moved into a flat on Birks Avenue in Clayton.
In the flat above lived a vulnerable and elderly male who he befriended.
Newill offered to do the man’s shopping and again took control of his bank card and PIN.
Mr Purhouse said: “The defendant activated online banking on [the victim’s] HSBC bank account without his knowledge or permission and then begun to use the HSBC account as if it was his own, spending his benefit money to purchase items for himself [and] diverting his DWP benefit money to other bank accounts controlled by the defendant.”
The theft was discovered in March 2022 when the victim told a visitor he had no money to buy food.
A check of his account revealed £5,000 had been taken out in a month, and that one of the names connected to money paid out was that of his neighbour Anthony Newill.
When the victim went to his bank, staff told him that, as they were talking, someone else was accessing his account using a banking app.
Not the first time he has stolen from relatives
An investigation subsequently revealed that, between January 15, 2018, and February 22, 2023, Newill stole £16,500 from his own father.
Between September 8, 2021, and July 10, 2023, he stole at least £23,500 from his neighbour.
The court heard that, in 2016 when he was a teenager, Newill received a youth conditional caution for burglary and two offences of fraud by false representation in which he stole a credit card and used it to buy things for himself.
The victim was his grandmother.
What the victims said
In the aftermath of the thefts, Newill’s father said: “I feel that what Anthony has put me through over these last few years – stealing my money and manipulating me – has had a great negative effect on my mental health.
He added: "Thankfully … I feel I am now on the road to recovery.”
His 65-year-old neighbour, who has since died, said: “Thankfully, I now have money in my account, and it is safe.
"But at that time when my money was stolen and I had nothing I was worried, scared.
"I couldn't believe someone could do this to me.”
Newill pleaded guilty to two counts of theft from the person of another.
Mitigating, James Holding said Newill, for whom cannabis was “the predominant factor in his offending” was “thoroughly ashamed of himself”.
He said Newill’s family had distanced themselves from him but that he wanted to reconcile with his father.
He explained that Newill had experienced a deprived upbringing and background.
Man avoids jail 'by the skin of (his) teeth'
Giving credit for his early guilty pleas, and taking note of his youth, significant remorse, and low risk of re-offending, Ms Recorder Ruwena Khan opted to suspend a period of imprisonment and told Khan he had avoided immediate custody “by the skin of your teeth”.
But she told him: “In both sets of circumstances you have taken advantage of very vulnerable people in vulnerable situations living on their own.
“You had no care for anybody else other than yourself.
“To leave two individuals without proper food, without electrics, without heating, without comfort, is particularly heinous.
“You were entrusted by them with responsibilities and some caring role, and you simply took advantage of both.
“That was incredibly disgraceful behaviour.”
She sentenced Newill to three years’ imprisonment suspended for three years and ordered him to pay £2,000 in compensation to his father.
He must also perform 250 hours of unpaid work in the community and undertake 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.