A conman who pretended to be an investment banker to steal his dad’s life savings has been ordered to pay back £1.
Peter Simmons, 27, posed as a fake investment banker called ‘Paul Newman’ to make almost 600 bank transfers from his dad’s account between 2015 and 2018.
He took a total of £450,000, using the money to gamble and splash out on items such as an £80,000 Range Rover.
But the fraudster, who was jailed for three and a half years in May, must pay back just £1 after a judge ruled he has no assets.
It all came to light when Simmons’ dad, Peter Simmons Snr, went to the bank with his other children.
When he discovered the fraud his son phoned him to say: ‘I am sorry… I hope you will forgive me.’
As a result of losing the money, Peter Simmons Snr, a former tree surgeon, was forced out of retirement.
Earlier this year, Maidstone Crown Court heard Simmons Jnr also raided his dad’s safe and pawned rings owned by his mother, Sharon, who died in 2014.
The pair had worked together at the family business Greenway Forestry Ltd in Strood, Kent.
After his mother died, Simmons Jnr, from Manston, Kent, took over the company’s administration, banking, wages and VAT bills.
He almost immediately invented the fictitious banker, claiming he had helped his late mother.
Simmons Jnr even supplied his dad with bogus bank statements which included genuine purchases to disguise his offending.
In his defence, the court heard Simmons Jnr had struggled with a gambling addiction that ‘spiralled out of control.’
In a victim impact statement, Peter Simmons Snr said: ‘It all began at the time of my wife’s passing and clearly I was vulnerable and trying to deal with unimaginable difficult situations.
‘My son and I have always been close and our relationship over the years has been amazing. I love him very much.
‘Not only did I lose my entire savings, but it has destroyed the brilliant relationship I had with my son and created a divide I am unsure will ever be resolved.
‘Peter left me with nothing…and I was forced out of retirement and back to work.’
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