A WILL writer who plundered more than £280,000 from the dead and bereaved has been jailed for four years.

John Malcolm Dowson targeted the estates of five deceased clients - syphoning off cash which should have gone to relatives and friends in an unsuccessful bid to prop up his failing business.

Durham Crown Court heard the previously untarnished businessman is now having to sell his family home in Ingleton, near Darlington, to try and repay some of his victims.

As director of Newton Aycliffe-based JMD Associates he was the majority share-holder in the family-run will writing and probate administration company.

In one victim statement, a would-be beneficiary said the 67-year-old's activities were carried out against the distressful background of the death of a loved one from a sudden brain tumour.

The victim said: "He seemed so charming and concerned for us. It’s so shameful to steal from the dead and bereaved.”

Paul Abrahams, prosecuting, said the outstanding sum withheld from named beneficiaries on one estate was £218,144, but with others it was lesser amounts - amounting to a total of £282,154.

“It was a sophisticated and long-lasting attempt to withhold money from beneficiaries in the hope they would be unaware of the true value of the estate."

He said many were happy to receive some money and would have been unaware of the full amount actually due.

The court heard JMD Associates was “not well run" and the system of deducting commission and making payments from the same account which received clients' funds was “open to abuse”.

JMD became insolvent in late 2013 after failing to meet VAT demands and early in 2014 an investigation was launched over potential irregularities following a complaint.

A warrant was executed at its Technology Court premises and anomalies discovered on eight probate files, for which Dowson was sole executor.

Three have since been settled in full but the five remaining unsettled estates, involving clients who died over a six-year period, became the subject of charges brought under the Fraud Act.

Dowson, of Front Street, Ingleton, initially denied five counts of fraud and a trial was set to start last week but he later changed his pleas.

Adam Birkby, mitigating, said Dowson offered a full apology to his victims and his admissions were on the basis he did not taken the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

“He acknowledges his criminal acts have caused the beneficiaries of these estates to suffer unnecessary upset and worry,”

Mr Birkby added. “The money has been used to try to keep the business afloat.

"It wasn’t as if he has bought BMWs or a villa in Spain. It was a case of a business running into financial difficulties.”

Asked by Judge Christopher Prince if there was any chance of Dowson ever paying back the outstanding money, Mr Birkby replied: “He would like the opportunity to release any asset, any interest accrued to him, but the only asset he has is the family home.

Mr Birkby said given current market values, the equity on his share is expected to be between £80,000 and £100,000.

He said the result is that Dowson, of previous good character, has now lost his good name and reputation built up over a lifetime.

He added that Dowson is struggling in prison, suffering ill-health, including nerve problems, high blood pressure and gout, and is “a shadow of his former self.”

Jailing him, Judge Prince said his actions had caused the affected families, “considerable distress”.

“This is a case of high culpability. It’s an abuse of a high degree of trust indeed.

“This was not a ‘one-off’, it was fraudulent activity carried out over a sustained period of six years. “You succumbed to temptation on more than one occasion.”

Proceeds of crime proceedings will now be instigated with a hearing scheduled for the court set to be staged in April.