Son of WWII hero and former royal aide is ordered to repay £200,000 to his family after he left his widowed mother penniless by swindling her out of almost half a million pounds
- Michael Pain was jailed for stealing £460,000 from his mother Lady Denys Pain
- Father-of-one, 52, diverted money to fund his business and pay his mortgage
- Family feared the money was gone but judge ordered Pain to hand over assets
Michael Pain was jailed for 32 months in 2010 after swindling his mother out of hundreds of thousands of pounds
A war hero’s son who stole nearly half a million pounds from his widowed mother has been ordered to repay almost £200,000 after an eight year court battle.
General’s son and former cavalry officer Michael Pain was originally jailed for swindling his mother Lady Denys Pain of Eddlethorpe Hall, near Malton in North Yorkshire.
But the family were determined to reclaim the fortune built up by his father Lieutenant-General Sir Rollo Pain, who died from cancer in 2005.
Sir Rollo was awarded the Military Cross for extraordinary bravery in repelling a night-time attack by 100 enemy soldiers in the village of Stemmen, Germany, in April 1945.
He had a glittering military and diplomatic career and was later aide de camp to the Queen. He and his wife also appeared in the TV version of Brideshead Revisited.
Married father-of-one Pain was living in a converted flat next to the family’s six-bedroom home when he was entrusted with his mother’s finances.
He systematically raided huge sums of money from her accounts with the Halifax and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Married father-of-one was entrusted with the finances of his mother, Lady Denys Sophia Pain (pictured in her home in 2010)
By the time police were called in early last year some £460,000 had gone missing, leaving Lady Denys, 85, riddled with debt.
An investigation revealed her son, who was behind with his mortgage and facing eviction, had diverted the cash to prop up his failing business.
The fraud came to light in January 2009 when Pain’s sister, Audrey Mahoney, visited from her home in Dubai and discovered her mother was penniless.
-
Lottery winner, 53, denies £2.5million fraud after being…
Bungling police officers catch thief stealing £9,000 worth…
Share this article
Her son had even turned off the central heating at her home, claiming it was broken, as the money started to run out.
On Monday Pan was back in the dock at York Crown Court for an assets confiscation hearing.
Judge Simon Hickey heard that Pain had benefited by £451,546 from his crimes, and a police investigation found he had £194,134 of assets that could be confiscated.
Pain was living in a converted flat next to the family’s six-bedroom home (pictured)
Pain, now 60, was once a Captain in his father’s old regiment, the Royal Dragoon Guards.
He originally admitted eight theft and fraud offences between April 2005, and February 2009.
He was jailed for 32 months in 2010 when he was disowned by Lady Denys, who died in a hospice aged 86 in 2011, hours before the original confiscation order was made under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
At the time, Pain’s assets were £166,834. But prosecutors later found out Pain had an inheritance from an uncle’s estate and returned to court to force him to hand it over.
The family feared the money was gone but on Monday the judge ordered Pain to hand over the assets.
After the criminal case, the family said Lady Denys had been ‘totally destroyed’ by her son’s betrayal and said it had made her life a ‘living hell’.
Pain’s sister, Audrey Mahoney, said: ‘My father was a wonderful man, he would be turning in his grave if he knew this had happened.’
Source: Read Full Article