SOUTHPORT
INSIDE THIS WEEK:
www.champnews.com
JUST WHITE • TIA
Vol 25 ● Issue 29
• BIANCA • L E B E K
18 July 2018
• E U G E N K L E I N • P E R U Z Z I • G O L L E H AU G
Tel: 01704 569697 5 WELD PARADE, BIRKDALE VILLAGE, PR8 2DT
Victoria’s crowning glor y!
Double blow for town’s shoppers
MORALLY BANKRUPT ...the wealthy luxury care home owner who fleeced millions from pensioners Report by Kenny Parker AS the owner of a luxury Birkdale care home, who swindled millions of pounds out of vulnerable residents, was sent to jail for 21 years, the judge who sentenced David Barton labelled the businessman ‘morally bankrupt’ calling him ‘one of the most dishonest people’ he had ever come across. ‘Despicable’ David Barton, 64, former director of Barton Park Nursing Home, Oxford Road, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court after a 12 month trial, said to be the longest ever at the city ’s QEII law courts. He was convicted of stealing and defrauding more than £4 million in total from six residents. He used the money to buy multiple properties in Southport and a fleet of luxury cars, including four Ferraris and three Rolls Royces. Benjamin Myers prosecuting QC, said the offending came to light after a civil trial in which Barton initially tried to fraudulently claim £10m against the estate and husband of one of the deceased residents. Also appearing in the dock with Barton was the home’s general manager Rosemary Booth,
David Barton - jailed for defrauding millions out of elderly residents at his luxury care home in Southport
The prosecutor said: “Barton Park Nursing Home presented as a high class residential home. It exuded opulence in accordance with the image that David Barton wished to present. However between 1997 and 2013 certain residents of BPNH were financially abused. “In each case this abuse followed a period of grooming in which targeted residents were rendered dependent upon Mr Barton or compliant with him and certain of those who worked with him or supported him. “The targeting was specific: he focused upon residents who were wealthy vulnerable and childless.” Mr Myers told the court that Barton exercised rigid control over the home. Those who did not do what he wanted were dispensed with and those who crossed him or provided an obstacle to him achieving his aims were threatened, often by way of menacing solicitors letters. The "high class" nursing home where wealthy residents were
69, of Hesketh Drive, Southport. She was said to be his eyes and ears, his lieutenant, assisting him in the process of distancing wealthy and vulnerable residents from loyal and long standing contacts who might stand in the way of him getting their money. She was jailed for six years. Thomas Mills, of Roe Lane, Southport, a solicitor, had also been accused of assisting Barton in the rewriting of residents’ wills. However, he passed away aged 71, in December 2016 before he could be tried.
Continued inside
defrauded of millions.
Judge calls for changes in care home legislation after ‘despicable’ David Barton is jailed for 21 years - p3
CREATE Your Stor y...
Apply online and start September. It’s time to Create Your Story! 0151 353 4444 hughbaird.ac.uk/apply
THE UK’S LARGEST LETTERBOX CIRCULATION BY AN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER! 164,303
CHAMPION SERIES
JAN-DEC 2017 100% FREE