A THIEF who befriended a vulnerable elderly man and drained his bank account of £44,000 has been jailed for three and a half years.

A jury at Bolton Crown Court had found paranoid schizophrenic Anthony Owen guilty of stealing the cash from dementia sufferer 82-year-old Michael Hudson over a three year period.

Sentencing 56-year-old Owen, Judge Peter Davies told him: “People like Mr Hudson will be protected from people like you who prey on them.”

The jury had heard how Mr Hudson, described by Judge Davies as a “solitary man who lived a dishevelled and chaotic lifestyle” had been befriended by Owen, who lived less than a mile from him in Breightmet and had asked the pensioner for permission to park his van on his drive.

As Mr Hudson’s eyesight and mobility deteriorated and dementia began Owen, of Highbridge Close, Breightmet, would take the pensioner to the cashpoint and do his shopping for him.

But Owen would hand over only a small amount of the cash he withdrew to his unsuspecting victim.

Altogether £44,000 was withdrawn by Owen between August 2008 and March 2011, of which it is estimated that he stole £35,000.

“You exhausted his entire finances,” Judge Davies told Owen.

“He believed you were his friend. You abused his trust.”

Alcoholic Owen spent Mr Hudson’s cash whilst leaving funds in his own bank accounts untouched.

The thefts came to light in 2011 after Mr Hudson, who died weeks before the trial began in April, went to live at Mill View Residential Care Home.

Whilst he had been in hospital and at the home Owen had used his bank card to steal £1,800, only stopping when care home staff cancelled the card.

Elizabeth Dudley-Jones, defending, said Owen, a father-of-four, had no education, is dyslexic and has suffered whilst in jail awaiting sentence.

She added that whilst accepting Owen had abused Mr Hudson’s trust he had not blamed anyone else for the thefts and had not committed the crime intending to cause harm.