Carer jailed for stealing £75,000 from man in Salisbury
66 year old Allan Beacham admitted taking money from a victim in his care
A man's been handed a three year and ten month jail sentence, after admitting stealing £75,000 from a man he was employed to care for in Salisbury.
66 year old Allan Beacham, from Wootton in Kent has been given his punishment by Winchester Crown Court.
Beacham began working for his victim, film-writer Alan Pattillo, in May 2016 in Scotland.
Mr Pattillo was registered blind, used a wheelchair and had Parkinsons.
He moved to Salisbury the following year, and continued to employ Beacham.
Mr Pattillo's solicitors appointed a paralegal to manage his overall finances, while Beacham managed his day-to-day spending, his care needs and liaised with the paralegal, when funds needed to be transferred into the current account.
During the spring of 2019, the paralegal left their practice, and a solicitor was appointed.
Mr Pattillo moved into a local care home and concerns were raised about large amounts of cash being removed from his bank account, with a report was made to Wiltshire Police.
Beacham was found to be requesting 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.
Unfortunately, his victim died during the investigation, however it was deemed that it was in the public interest to continue with the investigation which culminated in charging Beacham with theft of approximately £75,000 from October 2017 – May 2019.
DC Nick Bishop, now of Regional Organised Crime Unit said:
"Mr Beacham has been sentenced today 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 vein hope that the crown would concede and let him off. Unfortunately for him he was the only person that thought this, after all his antics justice caught with him and he has been 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 and trusted to look after on 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.
"Wiltshire 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."