Sheffield builder with gambling habit stole £23,000 from vulnerable old friend

Andrew Nichols took unofficial control of William Taylor's bank account, after he was deemed incapable of managing his own affairs following a fall, in November 2016, said prosecutor Jessica Strange.

But Mr Taylor's brother was sceptical about the friendship and became suspicious when he was asked to supply items by the care home where William lived.

Nichols withdrew cash to pay for building materials, gambling and drinks at his local pub, The Crown, Ms Strange said.

The account was frozen in February 2019, and Nichols was arrested in June that year.

Over the course of a 60-page interview he told police he was allowed to "borrow whatever he needed and he intended to pay it back."

Sheffield Crown Court heard Nichols met Mr Taylor, who died in September this year, while working on his house in 2006.

He received an £80,000 gift to buy a house which he renovated over the next few years, and had Mr Taylor over for Christmas dinner many times.

Nichols said Mr Taylor "planned to spend the lot" apart from leaving £5,000 to his brother and the rest to him. He has one previous conviction for battery, in April 2015.

Bianca Brasoveanu, mitigating, said "the defendant befriended an old, lonely man who had been widowed and was hardly visited by his family."

He pleaded guilty and exceeded the trust given to him, she said, but he was not executing some kind of masterplan," she said. The court heard he has a gambling addiction.

Nichols, 43, of London Road, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position, on October 27.

Judge David Dixon said he accepted the friendship was genuine, but told Nichols: "You got yourself into the mindset where you thought the money was yours to be used."

"You have abused that friendship," he said. "You have let that man down in the worst possible way. In some ways you have stolen from yourself."

He sentenced Nichols to 27 months in prison.

Read the latest cases from Sheffield Crown Court here.

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