Peter Holbrook: Bogus financial adviser conned victims out of £900k

Peter Holbrook, 75, admitted seven counts of fraud

A bogus financial adviser duped seven vulnerable victims out of nearly £900,000 to fund his gambling addiction, a court has heard.

Peter Holbrook, 75, targeted elderly or recently bereaved people, offering to write wills or handle probate matters despite having no formal qualification.

One victim lost almost £390,000 to Holbrook, who was spending up to 12 hours a day gambling.

Holbrook, from Oxenhope, West Yorkshire admitted seven counts of fraud.

Prosecutor Angus MacDonald told Bradford Crown Court that when Holbrook's victims and their families tried to get their money back he produced false letters or claimed it was tied up in frozen funds.

He said some of the people he targeted had died and the money they had hoped to leave to their children had been lost.

The barrister said one victim said as a result of Holbrook's actions he could not "fulfil the plans he had for retirement and had no money to pass on to the next generation, as he hoped".

The daughter of another victim said her mother "blamed herself for what happened, calling herself a stupid old woman," he told the court.

Mr Holbrook will be sentenced at Bradford Crown Court

Mr MacDonald said in total Holbrook took £849,839.30, with sums ranging from £20,000 to £384,303.

He told the court that when one victim's family said they had contacted the police Holbrook arranged for someone to call them purporting to be from West Yorkshire Police to say that it was "not a police matter".

When he was later arrested and interviewed he lied to police to say the delay in repaying some of the money was due to having lost his daughter to cancer.

Mr MacDonald told the court his daughter was in fact alive and living in another part of the UK.

John Batchelor, defending Holbrook, said his client, a former business consultant, had been "gripped by addiction" and recognised his actions were "disgraceful".

He told the court that efforts had begun to ask the gambling companies if they would return some of the money Holbrook frittered away.

Following the hearing Holbrook was remanded in custody to be sentenced on Monday.