A financial advisor has appeared in court charged with conning an 80-year-old client out of more than £123,000 of her life savings.
Stephen Martyn Butterworth, 54, of Whitebridge, Parkway, Gosforth, Tyneside, is charged with five counts of deception and one of false accounting between May 28, 1996 and February 26, 1998. It is alleged Mr Butterworth falsely claimed he was investing money in a charity investment account for the pensioner, of Stockton, Teesside.
Magistrates in Middlesbrough yesterday ordered him to surrender his passport before he was released on conditional bail.
The case was adjourned until July 24, when the matter will be committed to Teesside Crown Court.
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