Care firm boss jailed for stealing £100,000 from elderly couple
A man who owned a home carers’ business has been jailed for three-and-a-half years after he admitted swindling an elderly couple out of more than £100,000.
“Brazen” David Coughlin, 47, used £2,000 of their money to pay the deposit on a Range Rover Evoque.
He also bought wine and meals in pubs, paid £9,000 off his credit card bill, and spent £9,000 on building work at his home.
He pleaded guilty to 26 fraud charges at Mold Crown Court yesterday.
The prosecution didn’t proceed with an allegation involving a £200,000 cheque which he claimed was a loan to him.
The house he bought at Lyneal, near Ellesmere, will be sold as part of a proceeds of crime order.
Prosecuting barrister Simon Rogers said that John Davies, 92, and devoted wife Monica, 88, lived next door to the church at Bronington, on the Wales-Shropshire border.
But in 2014 the couple’s health deteriorated and Mrs Davies was diagnosed with dementia.
A friend had introduced Coughlin, who owned Ellesmere Home Care, to the pensioners and his firm provided care for them.
Eventually he became a signatory on their joint account.
But Mr Rogers said the couple went into a nursing home at Ellesmere in Shropshire in 2016.
Police were called in after a solicitor acting for them discovered a £75,000 transfer to the account of the defendant.
The barrister said a dining table and chairs, a toy helicopter, paint, tiles and fence panels were also bought by the fraudster.
The alleged benefit amount was £314,000.
Defence barrister Paul Smith said Coughlin hadn’t set out to fleece the elderly.
“He’s lost his career and business which he has built up,” Mr Smith said.
Judge David Hale told Coughlin, now of Talbot Street, Ellesmere: “Anyone in your position has a high degree of trust and you broke that trust.
"You cheated these two elderly, vulnerable people. You were brazen."
