A Ramsgate gambler who stole more than £55,000 from a family’s bank accounts has been jailed for four years.
Samuel Alexander, 24, of Grove Road, admitted to six counts of fraud and theft and was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on Monday 8 January.
Kent Police was alerted after one of the victims took his suspicions to officers on Friday 15 July 2016.
Alexander was immediately arrested and a warrant was carried out at the house he was living in. Officers seized a number of bank statements that evidenced the fraudulent activity.
The court heard how Alexander had been using the bank account of someone he knew to obtain money from her families’ accounts for more than a year and had repeatedly gambled it away using online betting sites. He had also been shopping online with the stolen money.
Alexander had taken several bank cards without permission and used them on numerous occasions. He’d managed to syphon the family’s savings from across several accounts between March 2015 and July 2016 before being discovered.
Investigating officer PC Ryan Bullows said: “Alexander systematically stole from people close to him in order to fund his gambling addiction. He showed complete disregard for his victims and repeatedly lied to them.
“This has completely abused any trust they had for him and has left the whole family devastated. Alexander has shown what he is capable of and will now serve time in prison as a result.”