A carer has been sentenced to more than three years in prison after stealing £75,000 from an Emmy award-winning film writer to fund his addiction to playing the lottery.
Allan Beacham, of Wootton, near Dover, stole tens of thousands of pounds from the man he was meant to be caring for.
The 66-year-old, who also worked as a personal trainer in Herne Bay, was sentenced yesterday at Winchester Crown Court after pleading guilty at a previous hearing.
In May 2016 Beacham worked for a care company and was sent to care for his victim, Alan Pattillo, a successful film-writer living in Scotland.
Mr Pattillo, who worked on the Thunderbirds television series, was registered blind, in a wheelchair and had Parkinson’s.
The following year Mr Pattillo moved to Salisbury, in Wiltshire, and continued to employ Beacham.
Mr Pattillo's solicitors appointed a paralegal to manage his overall finances and portfolio while Beacham managed his day-to-day finances, his care needs and would liaise with the paralegal when funds needed to be transferred into the current account.
During the spring of 2019 the paralegal left the solicitors, and a solicitor was appointed.
Mr Pattillo moved into a local care home and, after concerns were raised about large amounts of cash being removed from his bank account, a report was made to Wiltshire Police.
Due to the large number of lines of enquiry needed to be investigated including witness statements (some as far as Australia and the Outer Hebrides), the scrutiny of banking information and files held by the solicitors, the investigation was long.
It was established that Beacham would request money from the attorney for goods or services which should have been for the benefit of his patient but as soon as the money arrived in his account Beacham would withdraw the cash for his own benefit and his addiction to the National Lottery.
MailOnline reported that the court previously heard how “controlling and coercive” Beacham, had spent £25,000 on lottery tickets and would regularly steal cash from the “vulnerable pensioner” to fuel his addiction.
His victim died during the investigation but it was deemed in the public interest to continue with the investigation, which culminated in Beacham being charged with theft of approximately £75,000 from October 2017 to May 2019.
Det Con Nick Bishop, of the regional organised crime unit said: "Mr Beacham has been sentenced and at long last, despite his continued efforts to frustrate and delay justice for the victim’s family, has received a custodial sentence of three years and 10 months.
"It was obvious that Mr Beacham thought he could continue to procrastinate and make a mockery of the justice system for as long as possible in the vain hope that the crown would concede and let him off.
“Unfortunately for him, he was the only person who thought this, after all, his antics justice caught with him and he was handed an appropriate sentence.
"His crime was against a very elderly and vulnerable man, who he had employed as a trained live-in carer and who he totally depended on and trusted to look after him in his later years.
“Instead, Mr Beacham utterly abused this trust and position by stealing a vast amount of money from his employer for his own satisfaction and addiction.
"Police would like to thank everyone involved with their collaborative work including the Crown Prosecution Service and prosecution counsel Mr Evans to finally bring justice to the victim’s family."
