FRAUDSTER Guy Houghton has been jailed after stealing half a million pounds from his sick grandmother to buy a house and go on luxury holidays.

The 49-year-old abused his control over the finances of his widowed grandmother Beatrice Houghton, who had dementia, to steal at least £500,000 from her, leaving her penniless when she died aged 99.

Today, Swindon Crown Court heard that he used the money to buy a house in Malmesbury, go on holiday in Egypt and South Africa and launch a series of failed business ventures in Europe.

Houghton, now of Brockman Road in Folkestone, Kent, was jailed for three years and four months after pleading guilty to fraud.

Prosecutor Oliver Willmott told the court that Mrs Houghton moved in with her grandson at his home at Chestnut House in Milbourne, Malmesbury in 2005, after her husband died a few years earlier.

Within months, she was moved into Ilsom House nursing home in Tetbury, and her grandson was given an enduring power of attorney to control her finances.

When she died in March 2012, there was nothing left in her bank accounts and £19,000 in fees was owed to the care home, White Lodge in Braydon, where she had spent her final years.

Mr Willmott said the first thing that raised concern about the money was an email in 2005 from Houghton’s wife to his uncle which said: “Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but grandma bought us a house!!!”

This referred to the couple buying a new house in Malmesbury two months after selling Mrs Houghton’s old home for £559,000.

When bank statements were examined, it was revealed that Houghton had repeatedly plundered his grandmother’s assets.

“What is clear is a woman of some means was reduced to being without means by this defendant,” said Mr Willmott.

Although prosecutors said that £650,000 was taken, they accepted the defence’s claim it was half a million.

Tom Dunn, representing Houghton, said that the victim’s two sons lived overseas and as the only grandchild, he had cared for his grandmother.

Things started to go wrong when he married his wife, who ended up an alcoholic drug addict. He then began to take the money.

Mr Dunn said Houghton had been involved in a number of businesses, including mobile phone retailing, mortgage brokering and web design. “When his grandmother died, he was in a very, very dark place indeed. He didn’t go to her funeral because he simply wasn’t well enough,” he said.

“He genuinely loved his grandmother and to be standing in front of the crown court to be sentenced for disposing of her estate in the way he did is a cause of considerable shame.”

Jailing Houghton, Judge Tim Mousley QC told him: “Your dishonesty in relation to her assets was extensive and prolonged.”

 “The money went towards funding ventures but also towards a degree of high living so far as you were concerned.”