Hove solicitor sentenced for stealing from elderly clients

Paul Arscott, 49, of Woodland Avenue, Hove, was given an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years, when he appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex on Wednesday (November 14), police said.

He pleaded guilty on September 17 to four offences of theft and fraud.

Arscott was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay £20,000 prosecution costs, police said.

Sussex Police said Arscott admitted the theft of £23,000 from a Brighton man who died in 2012 aged 91. Arscott was given power of attorney and stole the money which had been left to charity, police said. He repaid this amount before the trial.

He also admitted fraud by abuse of position, police said, after obtaining £60,000 of savings from a Hove woman who died in 2017 aged 95. Arscott was her solicitor with power of attorney from 2011. He repaid £50,000 to her estate before the trial, and has now been ordered to pay back the other £10,000, plus £15,000 in compensation, police said.

And he also admitted two offences of fraud by abuse of position from a Hove woman currently aged 76, police said. He was her solicitor with power of attorney from 2013. Between May 2014 and March 2016 he stole £25,000 from her, officers said. He repaid the sum after conviction but before sentencing.

Detective Constable Nlkki Thiim said; “Arscott used his position as a solicitor and power of attorney to access monies to make himself a very rich man – the vulnerable elderly victims had no capacity to make any decisions and were considered to be suffering from severe dementia, so had no idea what the person who they have entrusted to look after them has been doing.”

The sentencing followed an investigation by the Sussex Police Economic Crime Unit.