A GARDENER who abused his friendship with a 98-year-old widow to defraud her of her £170,000 life savings has been ordered to repay almost £60,000 to her family.

As reported in the Daily Echo, Russell Joy befriended vulnerable Mary Brady in order to target her over the course of 18 months.

During the course of the frauds, he convinced Mrs Brady to hand over her bank details and write him a cheque for £100,000.

Joy began working for his victim, who lived in Broadstone, in 2008. He began his spate of offending against Mrs Brady in December 2014, when he established a direct debit from her account to pay for his car insurance.

This continued until April 2016. In total, he took £1,052.15 in this way.

During the same timeframe, he made more than 100 cash withdrawals of from his bank account. This left Mrs Brady unable to cover her household bills.

Joy also pretended to be Mrs Brady's grandson to convince insurance company Aviva into cashing out her investment bonds, which were worth around £200,000.

He then wrote himself a cheque for £100,000 and convinced Mrs Brady to sign it. Another cheque for £20,000 was also cashed.

On another occasion, Joy took £12,495 to pay for a Land Rover.

He used much of the money to fund lavish trips to Hong Kong and Thailand, although some was spent on 12 designer watches.

Her family only discovered his "despicable" crimes when she was hospitalised and her finances were looked into.

In July last year, Joy was sentenced to five years and a month in prison for six counts of fraud by abuse of position.

A judge sitting at Bournemouth Crown Court heard he had faced financial difficulties after a landscaping business failed. He owed money to the bank and his marriage had broken down, it was said.

Mrs Brady died in July 2017, shortly before her 99th birthday.

Her family said they had been left "shattered" after discovering how much had been stolen. In a statement, they said they were "desperately sad".

"She lived such a wonderful life and Joy's cruel actions and his abuse of her trust have tainted that," they said.

"This was a very ugly end to a very beautiful life."

Last week, Joy, formerly of High Street, Shapwick, near Blandford, returned to the court for a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing.

The 46-year-old was ordered to pay £59,550.54 within three months or face a default sentence of three years.

POCA hearings provide for the confiscation or recovery of proceeds of crime.