John Dickinson worked for mutual Foresters Life and had been Annie Petherick and her son Andrew’s financial adviser for 18 years before he started his swindle, according to the Western Morning News.
He tricked the Petherwicks into handing over large cheques on the understanding he would invest the money for them, but instead used it to pay his tax and credit card bills.
Dickinson emigrated to the Algarve just a month before he was due to attend a police interview into the thefts.
Mrs Petherick, who was in her 70s, died while waiting to get her money back while her 50-year-old son, who suffers from learning difficulties, should be repaid within the next few months.
The theft was only detected when an accountant checked the family’s finances and highlighted the missing money. By then Dickinson had already retired with the £35,980 in his two bank accounts.
He went to Portugal in 2012 but was tracked down by detectives from the Devon and Cornwall police and has been in Exeter Prison since being brought back to Britain under a European Arrest Warrant in August.
Dickinson, originally from Cobham, Surrey, but now of Faro, Portugal, admitted fraud and three offences of executing a valuable security.
He was jailed for two years, suspended for two years, fined £20,000 with £800 costs, and ordered to do 240 hours unpaid community work by Recorder Mr Simon Levene at Exeter Crown Court.
He was also ordered to pay £46,184 compensation and could be jailed for up to 30 months if he fails to pay this and the fine.
The Judge told him: “You had this money dishonestly over a sustained period in breach of trust off two extremely vulnerable victims, one elderly and the other with severe learning difficulties.
“You should be, and I am sure you are, completely and utterly ashamed of yourself. You had been trusted by the two victims for years with their financial affairs.
“I am satisfied from what I have read and heard this was simply greed and you did it because of temporary and trivial financial problems.
“You had a good character, good education, good standing in society, and you behaved in this way. As a result your family, including your wife, have turned their backs on you. You have lost, other than financially, as much as a man can lose.
“You fled aboard when you saw the police were about to arrest you. I do not accept this was a retirement abroad. It was chosen to coincide with the police desire to arrest you.
“In suspending this sentence I take into account your age, the fact you are to some extent socially isolated, and the three months you have spent in prison. You know what it is like and don’t want to go back.”
