Carer stole £75k from Thunderbirds director Alan Pattillo

The carer of a blind former film-writer and director has been jailed after stealing £75,000 from him to fund his playing habit.

Allan Beacham, 66, of Wootton in Kent, stole the cash from the Emmy award successful Alan Pattillo, who directed the primary episode of Thunderbirds.

Mr Pattillo, who died in 2020, was registered blind, in a wheelchair and had Parkinson’s when Beacham was taking his cash over a 19-month interval from October 2017 to Might 2019.

Beacham was sentenced at Winchester Crown Courtroom on Friday to 3 years and 10 months in jail after pleading responsible to theft in January.

Beacham was working for a care firm in Might 2016, when he was despatched to take care of Mr Pattillo in Scotland.

The next 12 months Mr Pattillo moved to Salisbury, Wiltshire, and continued to make use of Beacham who managed his funds and care wants. He would additionally liaise with a paralegal when funds wanted to be transferred.

However when Mr Pattillo moved into a neighborhood care house in 2019, considerations have been raised about giant quantities of money being faraway from his checking account, and a report was made to Wiltshire Police.

Throughout an investigation, officers found Beacham would request cash from an legal professional for items or providers which ought to have been for Mr Pattillo’s profit.

However as quickly as the cash arrived in his account Beacham would withdraw the money for his personal profit and his habit, the police mentioned.

Mr Pattillo died, aged 90, through the investigation however Wiltshire Police mentioned it was within the “public curiosity” to proceed their investigation.

Det Con Nick Bishop, now of Regional Organised Crime Unit, mentioned: “It was apparent that Mr Beacham thought he might proceed to procrastinate and make a mockery of the justice system for so long as attainable within the vein hope that the crown would concede and let him off.

“Sadly for him he was the one individual that thought this, in spite of everything his antics justice caught with him and he has been handed an applicable sentence.

“His crime was in opposition to a really aged and weak man, who he had employed as a skilled live-in carer and who he completely depended and trusted to take care of on him in his later years.

“As a substitute, Mr Beacham completely abused this belief and place by stealing an enormous amount of cash from his employer for his personal satisfaction and habit.”