A man stole £12,000 from his elderly and disabled mother during a year-long thieving spree.

Darren Simpson, 49, from Ripon, was given his mother’s bank card to carry out weekly shopping errands as her health problems and mobility issues meant she struggled with everyday tasks, York Crown Court heard.

But while he did his mother’s food shopping, he was also busy spending a small fortune on himself.

Prosecutor Matthew Stewart said that Simpson, of Mallorie Park Drive, had an online gaming habit and some of the money was spent on that.

Simpson, a father-of-one, claimed he had been spending the money on food for his family but a subsequent sift through his mother’s HSBC bank statements showed transactions on the CCP Reykjavík website, an Icelandic-based video-gaming firm.

Mr Stewart said that Simpson’s mother, who was in her late 70s, was registered disabled, had secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis, brittle bones and other health conditions affecting her mobility. She had a regular home carer, but Simpson also helped her out at weekends with food shopping.

The victim gave him her bank card to make food purchases, but at some point in 2022, Simpson suggested she used online banking. He duly installed the HSBC banking app on her tablet because she wasn’t “technically minded and struggled with the internet”.

His mother soon noticed something was amiss when she saw bills and charges on her bank statements which she didn’t recognise. She confided in her cleaner and a look through her statements showed suspicious withdrawals from cash machines and online-banking transactions which left her with rent arrears.

“She asked (Simpson) whether he knew anything about them and he said knew nothing,” said Mr Stewart.

The mother contacted her bank in the summer of 2023 and went to the HSBC branch in Ripon accompanied by her social worker to relay her concerns.

The bank trawled through nine months’ worth of statements from the summer of 2022 to the spring of 2023 and discovered there had been a series of dodgy transactions and bank transfers. The individual transactions ranged from £30 to £3,000.

The bank identified the mystery user as her own son, leaving the distraught victim “heartbroken”.

Police informed

Mr Stewart said the victim was initially “in denial that someone she loved and trusted could betray her in that way and leave her in a poor financial situation”.

HSBC informed police about what was initially just under £21,000 of “unidentified transactions” and Simpson was arrested at his home in Ripon in July 2023.

He was brought in for questioning but claimed that all the transactions were made with the “express permission” of his mother.

Simpson, who was working in a care home while also helping his elderly mother out with everyday chores at the weekend, was initially charged with stealing £20,959 and fraudulent use of her bank card by way of cash withdrawals and bank transfers from her account.

He initially denied the allegations but ultimately admitted the theft charge on the day of trial in February, on the basis that he stole £12,000, as opposed to just under £21,000.

The prosecution accepted his basis of plea and ultimately dropped the fraud charge. Simpson appeared for sentence today (April 4).

'I began to doubt myself', victim said

Mr Stewart said that notwithstanding Simpson’s claim that he was buying food for his family with the stolen money and the fact that money had been spent at local supermarkets, there had been bank transfers from his mother’s account into his own and money had been spent on online gaming and payments had also been made to Screwfix, the DIY chain.

In a victim statement, Simpson’s mother said she felt “absolutely heartbroken, upset and anxious” when she realised her son had been stealing from her.

She even “began to doubt myself” because she struggled to believe that her own son could have been responsible for such a betrayal.

Simpson appeared to be the archetypal doting son, bringing her “Sunday dinner treats” or helping with her boiler.

She had since moved into “assisted living” flats but, due to her son’s duplicity, even this was put in jeopardy because she couldn’t afford to put down a deposit. However, her social workers stepped in to help her out and she had an understanding landlord.

“I just never thought my own son would steal from me,” she added.

Defendant 'spiralled down to desperation'

Defence barrister Beatrice Allsop said that Simpson had financial difficulties at the time due to the collapse of his business due to the covid lockdown and thereafter he “spiralled down to desperation”.

She said that Simpson had lost his job at the care home due to his criminal conviction, but he had never been in trouble before and character references from family and friends spoke of an “honest, trustworthy, kind and considerate” man.

Judge Simon Hickey branded Simpson’s systematic stealing from his mother, who trusted him “implicitly”, as a “very, very mean offence”.

He said the offence was so serious that it warranted a jail sentence, but that it could be suspended due to mitigatory factors and an immediate prison sentence would not only effect his family, but also his mother.

The two-year jail sentence was suspended for 24 months. Simpson was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and complete 10 rehabilitation-activity days.