"Utter callousness" of Southport care home owner shows the need for greater regulation says Labour's Liz

Southport Labour has called for increased regulation of care homes after the 21-year jail sentence for local businessman David Barton Snr for a multi-million-pound fraud.

Outlining an astonishing litany of financial and emotional abuse carried out on elderly residents at the well known Barton Park Nursing Home Care, Judge Steven Everett at Liverpool Crown Court relayed how the local businessman manipulated and swindled them with "utter callousness".

Sentencing, the judge described how families were torn apart and huge sums taken by the businessman over 18 years to feed a passion for luxury cars, property and living the high life and explained how Barton Snr. conned his way into the wills of wealthy residents using their isolation or infirmity to take control of their lives and finances. In one incident he sold Rolls Royces at massively inflated sums to his elderly care clients and then stole one back after they died.

He even managed to convince an elderly resident that her family was trying to get her money to drive them apart so he could then do just that.

With the assistance of a solicitor with money troubles and his care home manager, reports revealed how at one stage Barton Snr. managed to steal £1 million in a single day and also attempted to gain £10 million from an elderly couple. The solicitor was charged with conspiracy to defraud but died before any trial and the care home manager, Rosemary Booth, was jailed for six years.

Labour's parliamentary candidate for Southport, Liz Savage, says that greater protection must be given to residents in private homes:

"This is an appalling case of abuse of trust. These people were at a stage in their life when they deserved to be cared for not callously conned in this fashion. Barton did this via gaining power of attorney, through gifts and being made a beneficiary in wills and although thankfully these sort of incidents are rare, there should be some sort of independent regulated scrutiny when elderly residents in such circumstances make these decisions as it seems a solicitor alone is little protection."

"As owner of the care home, he ensured he had total control over these people by befriending them and manipulating them. He had been doing this for nearly two decades and if it had not been for the tenacity of one family might well have gone on for two more."

"We are also concerned about what the future holds for residents in the many properties owned by David Barton Snr. We understand that Sefton Council has been very proactive and already removed local authority funded residents from the nursing home and has also spoken to all residents and their families that remain at Barton Park or arranged for them to have independent advocacy if they wished.

We have also had private tenants in rented accommodation contacting us who are very worried about the impact this could have on their tenancies. This man has caused a huge amount of distress through his greed and it should be looked into whether a mechanism can be found to prevent such cases in future."