Moray thief Ivan Downes ordered to repay £219,000 to deceased woman’s relatives

A Moray thief who deprived four grandchildren of a £120,000 inheritance has been ordered to pay back the money and also fined an additional £25,000.

Ivan Downes, who lives in Forres and used to be an inhabitant of Buckie, withdrew the money from his mother-in-law’s bank account over the space of six years.

When the elderly lady died in 2013 her relatives expected to find they had been bequeathed a sizeable sum, but instead found just £7.98 left.

Downes, today at Inverness Sheriff Court, was ordered to pay £219,000 to the relatives.

This amounts to the original £120,000 sum, plus annual interest at 5% for 11 years, plus a £25,000 financial punishment handed down to him by Sheriff Ian Cruickshank.

The 73-year-old defendant was given 28 days to pay after the court was told that his "financial circumstances had radically changed" earlier this year, although no details were given.

Sheriff Cruickshank told Downes, who served 17 years of a life sentence imposed at Norwich Crown Court in 1992 for murdering a man: "Ordinarily the ability to pay would not preclude a jail sentence, but you served over a year in custody when you were recalled to prison after being released on licence.

“Therefore it is only appropriate that you should be punished by a fine of £25,000 payable within 28 days."

The court was previously told that, after suffering a stroke in 2007, the elderly woman had sold her house and moved into a nursing home in the London suburb of Barnet.

Her daughter, who was married to Downes but has since died, was granted power of attorney.

Between 2007 and 2013 Downes withdrew the money from his mother-in-law’s account using cash machines in Inverness, Nairn, Elgin, Wick and Buckie.

More than 300 separate withdrawals were made, often for the daily maximum of £300, with 169 of the transactions taking place in Buckie.

Downes, of Woodroffe Street, Forres, tried to blame his late wife before his trial began at Inverness Sheriff Court in May.

However he changed his plea to guilty on the second day after the jury had been empanelled.

In addition to everything else Sheriff Cruickshank also ordered Downes to pay £5000 in compensation to the executrix of his mother-in-law’s will for the “considerable distress and anxiety” caused to her.