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Steven Symes, 61, tricked his victims with phony investment schemes, mortgage deals and credit card fraud. Cardiff Crown Court heard that the defendant’s daughter Chloe Symes reported her father to the police in 2018. She became aware that he had built up £125,000 of debt in her name through credit cards and loans. In a statement, Ms Symes said she felt “a level of hatred and anger” towards her father after he left her with an “appalling” credit score and being “harassed” by creditors for debts he built up in her name.

Between 2012 and 2018, “in excess of £1.8million” was paid into an account in her name, prosecutor Alex Greenwood told the court. Another victim, Gary Mawer, had been convinced to invest £30,000, which he understood to be a short-term loan to a third party represented by Symes with a 50 percent interest rate, to be repaid in six months.

The money was eventually repaid and Mr Mawer was then convinced to invest further sums with Symes totalling £297,500 – which were never repaid. Symes, who had worked for Barclays but was not employed by them at the time of the offences, also conned other victims in deals over repossessed homes in Newport, South Wales. He contacted the victims to say he had been scammed and all their money had been lost.

In total, it is thought Symes defrauded his victims to the tune of £642,000. He was arrested on September 26, 2018. Speaking in court, Mr Mawer said he was still working aged 77 because of the financial losses caused by Symes. That money had been earmarked to spend on his children and grandchildren.

In a statement read in court, Neil Perry, another victim, said Symes had conned him out of his wife’s life insurance money after she had died from cancer. The money would have been used to help the couple’s daughter after she finished school. Symes, of Newport, admitted four charges of fraud by abuse of position. Heath Edwards, defending, said: “He is deeply ashamed of the way he behaved.

He said Symes “felt trapped, using the money from one ‘client’ to pay the debts owed to another”, and that Symes was a man of clean character before this. “As his life spiralled downwards, he took others who didn’t deserve it down with him,” said Mr Edwards.

Symes was jailed for four years and four months. Judge Catherine Richards told him: “You abused the trust of your own daughter. The consequences of your fraud has a real human cost. This is a total fall from grace.” A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing will be held in May.

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