'Repugnant' son charged elderly mother £400 a day to visit her in care home

A son who "charged" his 87-year-old mother £400 a day for visiting her at her care home in Hertfordshire has been branded "repugnant" by a judge.

The 62-year-old financial consultant claimed nearly £120,000 in "expenses" from his mother's estate and told the court he charged her the same rate for visits as he would his business clients.

Investigators said that despite this, he failed to pay £29,000 care home fees for his mother, Sheila, who has dementia, The Daily Mail reported.

He also refused to pay for her hairdressing, toiletries and chiropody, telling the home, "I don’t think she needs colour tinting."

The man, identified only as Martin, from Gerrard’s Cross in Buckinghamshire, was stripped of the power to act as attorney for his mother by Senior Judge Denzil Lush.

Senior Judge Lush told the Court of Protection: "One would be hard pressed to find a more callous and calculating attorney, who has so flagrantly abused his position of trust."

Martin, a retired former project manager for Ernst and Young, became an independent financial consultant in the 1990s.

He said it was pointless to pay the money back to her now because it would all come to him anyway, since his mother would be dead "sooner rather than later."

The court also heard that Martin had paid himself £49,143.19 of his mother’s money for time he had spent on a dispute with a Welsh NHS board, which he said should have paid her care home fees.

Senior Judge Lush said of Martin: "He even begrudges her having her hair tinted" and has "persistently acted in bad faith."

The judge added: "The panel deputy will, for the first time in eleven years, place Sheila at the centre of the decision-making process, rather than view the preservation and enhancement of Martin’s inheritance as the paramount consideration."