A WORCESTER financial adviser has been sent to prison after admitting stealing more than £500,000 from his clients’ lifesavings.

Robert Newey, an independent financial adviser, took £553,000 from six clients – some of whom were elderly and vulnerable – between 2006 and 2008 to support his lifestyle and personal business ventures.

Newey, formerly of City Walls Road, Worcester, was sentenced to three years in prison at Hereford Crown Court for eight counts of fraud by abuse of position and one of fraud by false representation.

Investigating officer DC Andrew Moseley, of the economic crime unit, said: “Newey completely abused his position as a financial adviser and the trust that clients had placed in him.

“Some of the victims were elderly and vulnerable. He admitted to us that he had selected the victims because he knew they trusted him.”

Newey deliberately led investors to believe that their money was to be placed in secure bona fide financial institutions, even handing some victims debenture bond certificates and paying them interest to give his scam an “air of respectability”.

DC Moseley said: “In order to cover up the money he had stolen, Newey then had to ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ in a ponzi- type scam whereby he used the funds of new investors to pay interest payments that were due to earlier victims.”

The 66-year-old, who had worked for a number of agencies and set up his own business NLS Trust and Administrative Services over a 30-year career, could not keep up with the payments, leading his clients to become suspicious.

They alerted both the police and Stirling House Financial Services, based in Malvern, where he was working at the time.

Stirling House immediately suspended Newey and police began their investigation – which led them to discover a letter in his house admitting that he had taken his clients’ money and had lost it all.

Despite this, he continued to deny the charge until eventually admitting it last month.

Police praised the actions of Stirling House in dealing with Newey.

Managing director Penelope Francis said Newey had committed fraud with previous companies which had gone undetected.

“Unfortunately for Newey, he did not know that Stirling House go that extra mile over and above standard guidelines in monitoring their IFAs,” said Ms Francis.

“In consequence, and before he could get away with it all over again, he was rapidly caught for previous offences, suspended, reported, and has now been rightly imprisoned.

“The rigorous methods employed by Stirling House have resulted in a rogue IFA being brought to book for crimes against the trusting public before he could potentially do more harm to their pockets and the good name of our industry in general.”

Police are now trying ensure Newey will not keep any of his “ill-gotten gains”.