A pensioner has been left in debt after a man she treated as her grandson stole her life-savings.

Bhupinder Sahota milked nearly £200,000 from the bank accounts of Marie Rose Penn after she granted him Power of Attorney over her finances.

He spent the cash on designer clothes, expensive jewellery and home improvements – leaving his victim and her family owing thousands of pounds to the nursing home where she lives.

As Sahota, 34, was jailed for three years at Bradford Crown Court today, the 85-year-old wheelchair-bound widow told how his betrayal of her love and trust had hurt her deeply.

She said: “Nothing will remove my shock, knowing my life-savings have been stolen by someone I trusted and treated as a member of my own family.

“I now face uncertainty over my future financial security and might lose the home I shared with my late husband for more than 30 years.

“It grieves me to know that the modest life my husband and I lived to ensure our financial security has been squandered on frivolities.”

Prosecutor Dave MacKay said Sahota, who pleaded guilty to four charges of theft and two of fraud, lived on the same street as Mrs Penn at Stephen Crescent, Bolton Lane, Bradford.

He was a regular visitor to her home and regarded her as a grandmother.

In November, 2005, with her health failing, she moved into a nursing home, but did not want to sell her house. Interest from her £200,000 savings would cover the nursing home fees and maintenance of the house.

But Mr MacKay said he “bled every single penny and spent the money on a lavish lifestyle”.

He said Sahota continued to pay the nursing home, and Mrs Penn and her family were unaware her money was being frittered away.

By December, 2007, the amount left in one of Mrs Penn’s accounts was £146, with £49.87 in the second account by the following August. He said Sahota was arrested after he tried to get the authority from her solicitor to sell her home.

When police searched his house they found 44 pairs of jeans, ten pairs of trousers, 18 designer jackets, 76 designer tops, jewellery, including a Cartier bracelet and Tiffany rings, and other designer accessories. In total he stole £187,435 and had even racked up a £60 bill using Mrs Penn’s phone to ring chatlines.

Mr MacKay said Mrs Penn had been left without funds for her funeral and the debt to the nursing home was about £18,000.

Tarik Hussain, mitigating, said that at the time of committing the offences Sahota, who had known Mrs Penn since he was six, had been told he was terminally ill, which had a devastating effect on him.

After the case, Detective Inspector John Priestley said: “The Proceeds of Crime Team at Airedale and North Bradford Police are continuing to work to recover a significant portion of the stolen money.”