A health entrepreneur helped himself to more than £100,000 from his ailing father’s savings to pay his Netflix bill and buy meals out, a court heard.
Max Sharp, 48, was given control of Dr James Caveney Sharp’s finances after he became ill in 2007.
Sharp allegedly took at least £100,000 out of his father’s account over seven and a half years.
Andrew Johnson, prosecuting, told Inner London crown court Sharp treated the bank account “as if it was his own”, spending on meals out, online services including Netflix, and paying off his credit card bills.
When questioned by police, Sharp said he knew it was “wrong” and claimed he had used the money when he ran into financial difficulties.
Max Sharp runs the family health business based in Harley Street.
His father, now 80, was a consultant in London hospitals who fell into alcoholism. He is in a care home and jurors were told he does not have long to live.
The court heard Sharp claimed his father, if he was capable of deciding, “would have been more than willing to assist him” out of his financial woes.
“He rationalised that whatever was taken would have been deducted from whatever was left when his father died and his assets fell to be divided between him and his brothers,” added Mr Johnson.
Sharp, from Brixton, denies fraud.
The trial continues.
