A shameless thief who raided his own family’s bank accounts for £200,000 and ran off to Turkey for a year-long holiday has been jailed.
Terry O’Connor, 33, secretly set up phone and online banking for his parents, siblings and grandad and spent the next five years siphoning off cash into his own account.
He was rumbled when his grandfather went to withdraw some cash only to see his £80,000 life savings had been almost emptied.
Bank statements showed the money had been paid into accounts belonging to O’Connor’s parents before being transferred out again.
A subsequent police investigation revealed O’Connor had posed as his relatives to steal the money and funnel it through their accounts to his.
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Swansea Crown Court heard he stole £79,659 from his grandfather, £84,094 from his parents, £29,353 from his brother, and £8,241 from his sister.
O’Connor took a ferry from Dover to France and subsequently travelled to Turkey where he lived for almost a year before flying home in April this year and being arrested at Gatwick Airport.
The court heard that the grandfather’s bank repaid the money stolen in total, while the brother’s bank repaid half of what was taken from him.
The other family members have lost everything.
O’Connor’s grandfather has since passed away.
In a family statement his dad said the situation had been ‘very painful and very embarrassing for the family’ and said he did not want to spend any more time thinking about what his son had done.
He said: ‘For what he did to my father and the rest of us, I can never forgive him. We are an honest, hardworking family – he seems happy to take what he can from others around him.
‘What he has done to our family is unforgivable.’
The dad also said his son posted derogatory comments about the family on social media, and had then written to his mother while in prison to apologise.
He said: ‘I do believe he was sorry – but not for us. He is sorry he is in prison. He wasn’t sorry when he was stealing from us every day for five years.’
O’Connor, of Swansea, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and possession of criminal property.
His partner Chelsea Myles, 26, of Llansamlet, admitted possession of criminal property.
Judge Huw Rees told O’Connor that he was a ‘thoroughly dishonest individual’ who had defrauded members of his own family before adopting a ‘cowardly stance’ when the police become involved and fleeing.
He added: ‘Your behaviour was unforgivable.’
O’Connor was jailed for five years and three months.
Myles was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months.
Judge Rees said in the absence of any co-operation from O’Connor, the police investigation was to be commended.
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