Pensioner lost home after his daughter fleeced him

Bailiffs discovered 73-year-old former miner Archibald Hoggan in poor health, living in one room of the house in Holmfield Close, Pontefract, which was in a squalid state when they went to carry out the eviction because of the arrears.

Leeds Crown Court heard Cindy Gilbert had moved in with three of her children following the breakdown of her marriage soon after her mother’s death in 2008.

After her father had a fall in 2010 he rarely ventured out and told police he eventually had restricted himself to one bedroom because of his daughter’s aggressive attitude to him.

On one occasion he asked her to pay the rent and gave her his bank card and PIN number and she kept hold of it.

Simon Haring, prosecuting, said over the years that followed Gilbert continued to take money from his pension and rarely paid the rent so by April last year he was £3,400 in arrears.

Neighbours were discouraged from visiting and had no idea what had happened to Mr Hoggan. Meanwhile the house where he had lived and brought up his family since 1971 had rubbish and dirt building up inside.

The housing association had tried to contact Mr Hoggan but the truth only emerged when bailiffs found him in “very unkept state.”

He said he had been fed sporadically by Gilbert and her children. The court heard Mr Hoggan is now in a nursing home.

Gilbert, 49, admitted the theft of £13,400 and was jailed for 18 months.

Sentencing her, Judge Neil Clark said: “This was a disgraceful unpleasant episode committed in the grossest breach of trust against your own father.”

Michael Smith for Gilbert said it was accepted the state of the house was horrific when the bailiffs arrived.

After her father lost his home her children had gone to live with their paternal grandparents and she was homeless. She was eventually arrested under a warrant after failing to turn up at court earlier this year when she was found on a park bench in Doncaster.