Pensioner’s life savings taken from under bed

Jason David Jordan admitted handling stolen goods – more than £60,000 – which had been stolen from a pensioner who had it earmarked as inheritance for his children.

Crown Advocate Fiona Russell told the court how the victim had had an insurance pay-out in 2010.

He did not trust banks and had the payment converted to cash.

He kept the money, totalling £62,000, at his home under bedding in various bags. It was divided into various amounts, with each package labelled to his individual children.

During the morning of 29 June last year the complainant locked his home and left the key in the normal place before going shopping.

As he left he saw a person he did not know on the stairs, and when he got back at about 1.30pm the money was gone.

When Jordan was arrested at the Ville au Roi two days later he had £1,349 in cash on him plus recently-purchased jewellery with receipts.

He denied being involved in a burglary and said the goods were legitimate.

During a search of his home, packing from the money parcels with the name of the children on were recovered, along with receipts for recently-purchased clothing.

Examination of his mobile phone showed a video of a blue bag in a field.

When officers searched a field near Jordan’s home they found £56,615 in the blue bag.

CCTV footage showed Jordan arriving at his home carrying various bags at 11.24am on the day that the money went missing, and leaving about an hour later carrying another bag.

In interview, Jordan said police had acted illegally by looking at the contents of his phone.

He denied stealing the money, but said there would be repercussions for him for grassing somebody up and he would rather go to prison.

He had been asked by somebody he knew to attend at the property. He knew he would be asked to do something but said he had not known what beforehand.

He was given the bag, told to hide it for three days, and take a video of where it was.

He had numerous convictions, including three for handling stolen goods, and had spent a lot of time in prison.

Defending, Advocate Liam Roffey said his client had not known that this involved a man’s life savings and people’s inheritance. He was told he would be paid £3,500.

Jordan had been released from prison a few days before with no home, no job and no future.

Advocate Roffey said that both his client and the Guernsey public had been failed by this.

His client had been plagued by drug addiction for many years.

It would have made no sense for him to video record the bag if it had been a sole enterprise, said Advocate Roffey.

Judge Catherine Fooks said Jordan had numerous previous convictions and was put at a high risk of re-offending.

She jailed him for three years and nine months.

The £56,615 will be returned to the victim along with the £1,349 in cash that was recovered from Jordan.