A man who nicked more than £60,000 from his unwell father to blow on escorts and football tickets has been ordered to pay back just £1.
49-year-old Carl Hadfield started pinching money from his dad's bank account when the pensioner was bedbound in hospital.
He even mimicked being his father when answering the phone to a call from NatWest bank when they rang up to enquire about suspicious transactions.
Hadfield, who resided in a caravan at the bottom of his parents' garden, spent large sums of the stolen loot on trips to Anfield stadium to see Liverpool FC and for the company of escorts, reports Liverpool Echo.
It has now been reported, after a Proceeds of Crime Hearing on July 13, that Hadfield will only have to pay back £1 after the hearing heard that this is all he has to his name.
Hadfield, of West Lea, Clowne, also bought an Audi A5 with his dad's money but is now penniless.
Ordering Hadfield to repay £1 in a hearing at Derby Crown Court, Recorder Adrian Reynolds said: "I find that the benefit figure was £61,804.26 and as there are no available assets I order that a nominal £1 be paid.
"He has 28 days to pay it and if not the penalty is one day (in prison) in default."
The Proceeds of Crime Act (or POCA) allows the police to apply for cash to be seized from criminals who have made their money from ill-gotten gains.
It is typically used after drug dealers have been sentenced and can see criminals forced to sell properties, cars or jewellery that belongs to them to pay the cash back.
The money that is seized is split between the police and the Government and is often used to fund community projects.
At Hadfield's sentencing hearing at the same court in February, Rebecca Coleman, prosecuting, said the first set of offences took place in 2017 when Hadfield’s father was hospitalised with fluid on the lungs linked to his time working down the mines.
She said during that time his daughter, the defendant’s sister, helped with the finances and had access to her father’s banks accounts.
Miss Coleman said in November 2017, the daughter realised money was missing from a Santander account and so she and her father went to one of the branches.
She said: “They were told there had been payments made from it to Now TV, Amazon and a high number of PayPal transactions which had not been authorised.
“The police were called and an investigation revealed more than £16,000 was missing from a NatWest account, more than £26,000 from a Santander account and there was a £7,000 credit card bill outstanding.
“The defendant was invited in for a voluntary interview and admitted he took the money saying he had set up a PayPal account in his father’s name.
“He said he even used it to purchase a hospitality suite at Liverpool football club and checked into an Ibis hotel and paid for escorts.
“He said he also bought an Audi A5 car.”
Miss Coleman said the defendant then failed to turn up at court after being charged and went missing until the second set of offences in late 2019.
She said his father received a telephone call from his the bank saying £600 had been withdrawn and it was later linked to his son.
Miss Coleman said between August and December 2019 a further £9,500 had been taken.
She said: “On January 16, 2021, he defendant’s sister telephoned the police to say her brother was living in a caravan at the bottom of his parents' garden and he was arrested.”
Hadfield pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and two counts of fraud.
In a victim impact statement, Hadfield's father asked for his son not to be sent to prison, despite what he did.
Jailing him for 20 months, Judge Jonathan Bennett said: “You frittered the money away in many inappropriate ways.”
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