A CORONER who boasted about luxurious holidays, fine dining and an expensive wine collection to the people from whom he had been stealing has been jailed for eight years.

Alan Crickmore, aged 57, stole almost £2 million from clients of his law firm by grossly overcharging and plundering their estates after they had died.

Former Polish prisoner of war Jozef Dziuma, who settled in Cheltenham, hired Crickmore to write his will and act as sole executor for his £56,869 estate.

Crickmore, of East Approach Drive, Cheltenham, was directed to give £30,000 to charity, £5,000 to Mr Dziuma’s GP and the remaining amount to his brother in Poland. However, while the charities chased up what they were due, neither Mr Dziuma’s brother nor his GP received any money, as Crickmore had pocketed it all in ‘costs.’ In 2003 Clare Wilson, 88, and with worsening dementia, gave the solicitor power of attorney over her considerable assets.

Crickmore, who was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court soon set about ransacking her accounts, taking a total of £559,172 before and after her death in 2009. In total the father-of-three stole £1,985,097. Crickmore had entered a guilty plea to 16 charges of theft, seven charges of fraud by abuse of position and one count of fraud. Detective Chief Inspector David Sellwood, who led the investigation, said Crickmore never showed any remorse.

"Some of his victims, a number of whom considered him a personal friend, were vulnerable people who had put their full trust in him.

He let them down and left their families devastated.”