A FORMER Westhoughton mayor has told a court that he cleared £1,000 out of his elderly father’s bank account in order to avoid care home fees.

James Gilfillan, who was the town’s first citizen from 2007 to 2008, is standing trial at Bolton Crown Court, accused of stealing £23,500 from his infirm dad and fraudulently using the pensioner’s details to obtain loans from a bank and payday lender Wonga.

But giving evidence in his own defence, 55-year-old Gilfillan told a jury that his father, an 82-year-old widower, had willingly given him money for several purchases, including an all-expenses paid trip to Edinburgh for him and his wife, Kathy, to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.

Gilfillan, of the White Horse pub, Market Place, Howden, also claimed that his dad contributed £2,000 towards the cost of a wedding for Kathy Gilfillan’s daughter and told him to buy a £4,500 car when his previous vehicle failed its MoT.

Gilfillan took out a bank loan using his father’s name and account details in order to fund the purchases.

He added that when he also used his father’s account for loans from payday lender Wonga, he would refund the money to his dad in cash, rather than pay it back into the bank.

The court has previously heard how Gilfillan, the eldest of the pensioner’s three sons, had control of his father’s bank accounts from 2011, but police began to investigate the former politician two years later.

Gilfillan’s younger brother, David, had become suspicious after his sibling moved to Howden and refused to give him access to the pensioner’s accounts, even though he continued to live nearer their father in the Bolton area.

In June 2013 ailing Mr Gilfillan Snr, who died in January this year, went to live at St Catherine’s Care home in Horwich.

Questioned by Roger Brown, prosecuting, about why £1,000 was transferred out of the pensioner’s account, effectively clearing it of cash, on June 24 2013, Gilfillan said Bolton Council had wanted details of Mr Gilfillan Snr’s finances in order to establish his care costs.

“He would have very little in his account, the reasoning being he would then have very little in fees to pay,” said Gilfillan, who stressed that he later returned the money.

The case continues.