Jail for son who stole £30,000 from his mother

A MAN convicted of stealing his mother's £30,000 cash in the attic has been jailed for two years.

Craig Manders was found guilty of stealing the money, which his mother Shirley had stashed in her parents' loft after selling her caravan, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Manders, 28, formerly of Cromhall, near Thornbury, but now living in Pontyclun, Wales, denied the theft between August and October 2008 but was found guilty after a trial.

He pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining a passport and skipping bail in order to work as a skilled artist in the USA.

Bristol police obtained an international arrest warrant after Manders left North America and surfaced in Stavanger, Norway.

Judge Martin Picton told him: "All the family has been destroyed by all this.

"It's a really cruel offence. You stole £30,000 from your own mother, from your own family.

"It was a despicable thing to do. You intended to do it and you tried to hide it. When you were on bail you told lies, got a passport, got out of the country, stayed out of the country and stayed out of the way."

At his trial the jury heard Manders replaced his mother's bank notes with bundles of paper.

Shirley Manders told the court she had placed the cash in a safe in the attic of her parents' home in Argus Road, Bedminster.

When she went to take some money out, the contents felt funny and she tipped out a pile of bank note-sized white sheets of paper.

She said she was so traumatised that her family called a doctor.

She told how she and her husband George, whose family has a connection with fairground folk, sold their 40ft showman's caravan to a multi-millionaire in November 2007.

Mrs Manders took the £30,000 and put it in a lockable safe in her parents' attic.

She said only her parents, two brothers, sister and two sons knew about the safe.

Mrs Manders told the court: "I put my hand in the safe and it felt all funny. I started to shake.

"I took the bag out and there was all this paper, cut up. I was, sort of like, traumatised for a moment.

"I said to my brother 'It's gone Joe'. "He said 'no'. I tipped all the paper out and with that I collapsed."

She said kind-hearted millionaire Kevin Tomlinson later sold her back her original home for £20,000, for which she took out a loan.

Julian Howells, prosecuting, said Manders' fingerprints were found on the loft hatch, cardboard boxes around the safe and on some pieces of paper inside.

Mrs Manders' brother, Joseph Heal junior, said he never saw his sister's £30,000 but he helped her put a package into their parents' attic four days after his wedding in November 2007.

Source: http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Jail-son-stole-pound-30-000-mother/story-15522885-detail/story.html

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