A GARDENER who fleeced a 98-year-old widow of £170,000 from her life-savings has been jailed.

Russell Joy befriended his employer Mary Brady, a vulnerable woman who lived alone, and repeatedly stole from her over an 18-month period.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard yesterday that Joy convinced Mrs Brady to hand over her bank details and also write him a cheque for £100,000.

His “despicable” crimes were only discovered when Mrs Brady’s family started looking into her finances after she was hospitalised.

The court heard Joy had been working for Mrs Brady, who lived in Broadstone, as a gardener since 2008.

The offences began in December 2014 when Joy set-up a direct debit from Mrs Brady’s account to pay for his car insurance. The transaction continued until April 2016 and totalled £1,052.15.

During the same period Joy also made more than 100 cash withdrawals of £300 from Mrs Brady’s bank account – totalling £32,100.

The court heard that these withdrawals left the bank account with “insufficient funds” for Mrs Brady to cover her bills.

The court heard Joy also pretended to be Mrs Brady’s grandson to convince insurance company Aviva into cashing out Mrs Brady’s investment bonds worth around £200,000.

Joy then wrote himself a cheque for £100,000 which he had signed by Mrs Brady. Another cheque for £20,000 was also cashed.

And on November 9, 2015 he took £12,495 to pay for a Land Rover. Over the 18-month period Joy stole £169,107.

The court heard he used the money to pay for lavish trips to Hong Kong and Thailand and 12 designer watches.

Joy faced financial difficulties after his previous landscaping business had failed and he owed money to his bank. His marriage had also broken down. 

Mrs Brady died earlier this month, just before her 99th birthday.

The court heard she had been left “shattered” after discovering how much had been stolen.

A statement from Mrs Brady’s family said: “We are desperately sad about what happened to Mary.

“She lived such a wonderful life and Joy’s cruel actions and his abuse of her trust have tainted that. Joy managed to completely pull the wool over the family’s eyes to hide what he was doing.

“The whole situation has been emotionally draining for everyone, but there is relief at the length of the sentence.

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

“We have wonderful memories of Mary and she will be terribly missed.”

Judge Peter Johnson described Joy’s crimes as “despicable”. 

He said: “You systematically plundered her accounts in an act of unadulterated, cynical greed, then used that money to live a life of luxury to pay for flights, watches and holidays.

“At one stage you even stooped so low to withdraw cash when she was in the hospital.

“She was an incredibly vulnerable person who died recently thinking she had been taken for a fool.”

Joy, 45, of High Street, Shapwick, near Blandford, was jailed for five years and one month for six counts of fraud by abuse of position.