Halifax gambling addict stole grandmother's life savings Published duration 12 June 2018

image copyright West Yorkshire Police image caption Darren Gledhill was jailed at Bradford Crown Court for 28 months

A gambling addict who stole more than £430,000 from his grandmother to fund his habit has been jailed.

Darren Gledhill, 30, plundered his elderly gran's life savings over three years, leaving her three children with no inheritance following her death.

Bradford Crown Court heard he began stealing from Sandra Gledhill after he set up an online bank account for her.

Jailing him for 28 months, Judge Durham Hall QC said the emotional distress he had caused was "beyond calculation".

The court heard Gledhill, who worked as a manager for Sainsbury's, stole amounts ranging from £1.20 to £10,200 by transferring the money in to his own account.

The offence came to light when the care home where his grandmother was living realised she was more than £40,000 in arrears.

When police checked her bank accounts they found Gledhill had made 350 bank transfers between June 2014 and November 2017.

Prosecutor Philip Adams said the money should have gone to Mrs Gledhill's three surviving children following her death in January.

'Prodigious loser'

Abigail Langford, for Gledhill, said he had been in the grips of an online gambling addiction.

She said: "He was clearly in the grip of a downward spiral of depression at the time of the commission of these offences, sadly unrecognised by him."

"He will never be able to repay the money he took.

"It causes him great distress now in the cold light of day."

Judge Durham Hall QC said: "You were a prodigious gambler and I suspect, as there is nothing left, a prodigious loser."

Gledhill, of Hebble Gardens, Halifax, pleaded guilty to a charge of theft.