Philip Smith, 48, conned at least 50 victims, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable, and threw away much of his ill gotten gains by gambling on the Internet. However Smith also stashed much of the money in offshore bank accounts and lived a lavish lifestyle off the proceeds.

Judge Peter Larkin, in Manchester Crown Court, called him a “callous, manipulative and thoroughly dishonest man”. Judge Larkin went on to say that “as a financial adviser, your clients trusted you to handle their financial affairs with integrity and honesty. You breached that trust placed in you in a cold and calculated way. You deliberately targeted elderly and vulnerable people. This was dishonesty on a truly breathtaking scale.”

Smith admitted 49 counts of theft, five of money laundering, two of false accounting and three forgery. Many of his victims were friends of over 20 years, and included his own brother.