Jailed: Fraudster employed by Wolverhampton funeral firm preyed on grieving victims to feed his gambling habit
A crooked salesman, who "preyed on the vulnerability of the bereaved", by pocketing thousands of pounds handed over by customers of a Wolverhampton funeral firm and using it to feed a gambling addiction has been jailed for 20 months.
Steven Drinkwater worked for Chapel Ash-based Hopcraft Funeral Directors from March 2013 but took £9,920 from eight customers who ordered headstones and memorials, including a mother grieving for her still-born baby and a woman who had seen her beloved son die, with charity boxes he had collected for the National Heart and Lung Foundation also going missing.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard receipts for the headstones and memorials were written on compliment slips and many of the goods brought were never delivered or there were problems with the time frame increasing the grieving process for his victims.
The money, which under his encouragement was mainly handed over in cash, fed Drinkwater's gambling addiction.
The court heard victim impact statements from six of the victims, but it is estimated there were many more that didn't come forward, with potentially thousands of pounds going unrecovered.
