AN ALCOHOLIC who was taken in by a Dorchester pensioner and stole thousands of pounds from him has been jailed.

Gary Vincent Clarke, 42, was given a home by 74-year-old John Trevett and helped to care for him over several years.

However, when he was asked to use Mr Trevett’s cash card to withdraw money for the elderly man he regularly took extra funds for himself and ended up stealing a total of £4,000 over a period of 11 months.

Clarke was sentenced to 12 months in prison after admitting four charges of fraud and one of theft.

Jennie Rickman, prosecuting, told Dorchester Crown Court that Clarke met Mr Trevett back in 2006, a time when he was homeless.

She said: “Mr Trevett took pity on Mr Clarke and indicated he could come and stay at his address.”

Miss Rickman said Mr Trevett, who had problems walking, used to withdraw £100 a week from a cash point in Dorchester and use that for his day-to-day living expenses.

With his health deteriorating and as the two became closer, Mr Trevett began to entrust Clarke with going to the cash point and withdrawing the £100, from which he would give the defendant £20 to buy tobacco.

In May 2008 Mr Trevett noticed some irregularities in his account and after he reported them to the police Clarke admitted withdrawing extra funds.

On that occasion he was given a caution as Mr Trevett did not want to proceed with a prosecution.

Clarke moved out of the flat but Mr Trevett later allowed him back and he began offending again.

Miss Rickman said in September 2009 Mr Trevett was contacted by Magna Housing Association as his rent was in arrears and he looked through his statements to investigate why this had occurred.

This led him to discover that Clarke was again taking extra funds and he made full admission to the theft of the £4,000 in interview with police.

Lucia Whittle-Martin, mitigating, said her client was ‘sincerely sorry for what he had done’.

She added: “Mr Clarke got into a cycle of alcohol abuse and spent the money on drink and gambling.”

Miss Whittle-Martin added that Clarke had now taken steps to address his alcohol problem.