Lawyer stole from elderly sisters

Davies said Mrs Hughes liked him to read her Tennyson's poetry

A solicitor and former Plaid Cymru parliamentary candidate has been jailed for three years for stealing around £50,000 from two elderly sisters.

Rhodri Vaughan Davies, 55, was told by a judge he had abused the trust of the women by grossly and dishonestly overcharging them when he ran a Bangor solicitors' office.

During a four-week trial, Mold Crown Court heard he visited one of the women at the Ceris Nursing home, near Bangor, to read poetry to her - and then charged her hundreds of pounds for the privilege.

Davies, who moved to Beaconsfield in the south of England and continued to practice as a solicitor, had denied nine charges of theft, deception and forgery.

Davies - also a former head of administration for Anglesey county council who gave up the post to pursue his political ambitions - carried out the offences in the 1990s.

You abused the trust of two elderly and vulnerable ladies, these offences were committed with cunning and with great care Judge John Rogers QC

Prosecutor Robert Trevor-Jones said Davies plucked figures out of the air when he later billed for the work he said he had done.

Davies claimed he advised them about tax, financial and legal matters.

He said both told him he should be properly paid for the time he spent with them.

He was convicted of three charges of theft and one of deception.

Davies stole £3,520 and then £7,050 from Martha Griffiths and £11,750 from her sister Anne Hughes.

He then obtained £30,000 by deception from Mrs Hughes.

Both women were former teachers and Mrs Hughes had been the wife of a banker.

The two women have since died.

The prosecution alleged the money was spent by Davies to pay for his mortgage, new carpets, a taxi bill and bolster the office account of his firm, Rhodri Davies and Co., in Bangor's High Street.

For Davies, Julian Shaw said his client realised his career was now at an end and that he would never work in the legal profession again.

'Preying upon the elderly'

Judge John Rogers QC told Davies: "You have abused your responsibility as the executor to plunder the estate of a family friend.

"You stole more than £10,000. Then you turned to her elderly, blind sister from whom you effectively stole more than £40,000."

"You abused the trust of two elderly and vulnerable ladies, these offences were committed with cunning and with great care, and offences of this kind undermine the confidence of the public in the legal profession.

"Only a substantial period of imprisonment is appropriate in order to re-assure the public and to deter others who contemplate preying upon the elderly."

Davies was ordered to pay £30,000 compensation after the court heard that some money had been repaid by the Law Society.

He will also have to face a Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal.