A BANK manager swindled £90,000 out of a pensioner he befriended.

Christopher Walsh left 79-year-old Eric Dann unable to even buy food as well as facing legal action over unpaid taxes after the four-year long fraud.

Walsh, pictured, who was working at an Oxford branch of Barclays, had befriended Mr Dann in 1993 and later became his financial advisor, managing his bank accounts and his tax returns.

But between 2007 and 2011 he helped himself to around £70,000 of his victim’s money and also stole a £20,000 cheque for Bank of England Treasury stock.

The elderly man did not realise his accounts were being raided until Thames Valley Police received a tip-off and told him what had happened.

Walsh, of Banbury Road in Kidlington, told police he had fallen into debt and intended to pay Mr Dann back, until his life started to spiral “out of control”.

The 48-year-old stood in the dock at Oxford Crown Court red-faced and close to tears as Judge Gordon Risius told him he had breached the trust of a “vulnerable man”.

Judge Risius said to Walsh: “This was a confidence fraud which involved one vulnerable victim.

“It was characterised by very extensive planning and multiple transactions over a significant period of time.

“It has had a devastating and lasting effect on Mr Dann, both financially and emotionally.

“His victim impact statement makes very sad reading, because he suddenly found he had no-one to turn to.

“He could not access his bank account, he couldn’t buy food.

“He has been threatened with legal action over his tax affairs, which he thought you had been dealing with on his behalf.

“It is a tribute to the efforts of the police that he’s not in an even worse situation.”

Walsh, whose work for Mr Dann was not connected to his job at Barclays, was jailed for three-and-a-half years after he admitted theft and five counts of fraud by abuse of position.

Investigating officer for the case DS Simon Hannam said he was glad Walsh had received a custodial sentence.

He said after Friday’s sentencing: “Mr Dann is also happy with the sentence, but now we are just trying to get the money back.

“That is the main thing people want in cases like this. It was a horrible crime, picking on a vulnerable, elderly man.

“Walsh was the friendly chap in the pub who everybody got on with, but nobody really knew or understood what he was doing.”