A gambling addict who stole just under £1m from his wife’s elderly grandfather has been jailed for nine years.

Garry Vernon was convicted by a jury of three counts of theft totalling £997,068 in February this year following an 11-day trial.

His thefts resulted in a large part of the late Evan Gelling Fargher’s estate being lost.

Jailing him for nine years at the Court of General Gaol Delivery this afternoon (Friday), Deemster Graeme Cook told him: ‘You were extremely deceitful and morally disgusting.’

He said the victim’s family had been left devastated.

‘The family has been torn apart. You should be thoroughly ashamed,’ the Deemster told him.

The court heard that Vernon, of Glen Auldyn, Ramsey, had befriended Mr Fargher and told him that his finances were not being handled well.

He then persuaded him to transfer £100,000 which he used for a speculative foreign exchange investment.

That money was lost in a short space of time as was a further £100,000 he transferred from his victim’s accounts.

‘Then it seems your gambling addiction took over and you were chasing your losses,’ the Deemster said.

‘If it was your own money I would say “more fool you” but it wasn’t.’

Mr Fargher lived in the Castle View nursing home in Peel from December 2009 until his death in April 2013 at the age of 89.

When the old man died, Vernon gave a letter to his wife explaining what he had done.

Defence advocate Stephen Wood said his client had had a pathological gambling disorder.

‘He could not help himself given the nature of his addiction. Why didn’t he just stop? Unfortunately he could not,’ said Mr Wood.

The offences took place between January 2010 and April 2013.

The court heard that Vernon had no previous convictions and his gambling addiction had lost him his marriage and in 1998 a trusted job at the Bank of Bermuda.

Mr Wood said his client had since found ‘considerable solace’ with the Living Hope church.

Deemster Cook jailed him for nine years for count 1 – the theft of £663,945 – and for five years and two years to run concurrently for the other two counts, the thefts of £325,273 and £7,850 respectively.

Vernon will be eligible for automatic release after serving two third of that sentence and can apply for parole after serving half.