A rogue financial adviser who cheated vulnerable elderly women, family and friends out of their life savings - and fled to Russia to spend the proceeds on gambling and prostitutes - has been jailed for eight years at Liverpool Crown Court.

Posing as a legitimate financial adviser, Neil Bartlett, 53, of Delamere Road, Ainsdale, used £4.5m of his victims’ money to fuel an extravagant lifestyle of foreign travel, top hotels and gambling.

Earlier this year the ‘morally devoid’ fraudster left the UK for Russia where he spent cash on escorts, prostitutes and gambling. He was arrested when he flew back to Manchester in November.

The court heard he enjoyed a millionaire lifestyle, blowing £180,000 on two escorts alone and enjoyed breaks in New York and the Maldives.

His crimes have left a wake of financial devastation among family, friends and local elderly people he cheated out of their life savings.

Some of his retired victims are now faced with being forced to return to work to make ends meet. He took £600,000 from one victim alone.

Earlier in 2018 Merseyside Police received reports from Action Fraud about Mr Bartlett’s business practices and a fraud investigation was launched.

Pretending to be an experienced financial adviser he ‘schmoozed clients’ and then ‘invested’ their money, pensions and often life savings into what they thought was a safe investment account with interest.

However it later emerged that Mr Bartlett had created a sole trader account with the same name as the company he worked for and paid himself money from the account.

The fraud was believed to have started in 2013 and continued for five years. In total there were 24 victims.

Earlier this year he took over £740,000 from friends he had known since pre-school, together with his friend’s parents and his own family.

He also took advantage of being the Power of Attorney to defraud a vulnerable elderly victim.

He pleaded guilty to 14 counts of fraud and asked for 14 further fraud offences to be taken into consideration.

One of Bartlett’s victim said: “I cannot forgive him for what he has done. I feel he came back into our lives, and whilst we welcomed him back he has just abused all trust. He calculated what he was doing and groomed us.

“He has taken £450,000 from myself, my partner, my parents and my other best friend. We have all worked hard all our lives to accumulate that money and it was our future security. He then blew the lot on prostitutes, escorts and expensive holidays. I do not want to know or see him ever again and hope he gets the maximum sentence possible while we try to pick up the pieces and plan for our uncertain future.”

Another victim said: “It goes without saying that I wish I had never met Bartlett, except that I now know that no one, no matter how well you think you know them, no matter what their supposed field of expertise, can be trusted when it comes to money.

“No one was too vulnerable, no matter how old, no matter how wealthy, no matter how well he knew you, Bartlett would take your money. No matter what questions you had, he schmoozed you with his charm, baffled you with his purported insider knowledge of the tricks of the trade.

“He encouraged you to persuade your friends and family to invest with him, enticing you with promises of commission. He has no conscience, he is morally devoid. I have witnessed and previously commented on his chameleon like nature even before we became aware of his duplicitous criminal behaviour. If he is showing signs of remorse, take it from me, it is an act.”

Merseyside Police welcomed the sentence.

Detective Sergeant Christopher Hawitt said: "We welcome the sentencing of Neil Bartlett and hope that he will now spend the considerable future thinking about the consequences of his actions. It is never nice for anyone to fall victim to fraud but this was a particularly unpleasant case for Bartlett’s victims as some of them had known him for over 50 years and so trusted him with, in some cases, their life savings.

"Bartlett thought of nobody but himself and furnishing his excessive lifestyle with the money he took from those who trusted him most.

"They are now forced to pick up the pieces of their lives but many have been left without the financial nest egg which was rightfully theirs and which they worked for many years to earn. In fact some of his victims, who have worked all their lives, are faced with the prospect of having to return to work.”