A MAN has been jailed after he stole £800,000 from a pair of pensioners and then lost it gambling online.

Gary Watts, 57, pictured, was sentenced to three years in prison at Oxford Crown Court on Monday.

Watts, of George Street, Bicester, pleaded guilty of one count of theft at an earlier hearing on March 9.

For more than a year, between January 2014 and February 2015, Watts was entrusted to handle the finances of a 92-year-old woman and an elderly man, police said.

During this time he stole £800,000, which police said he subsequently lost through online gambling.

Det Con Krista Thompson, from the Economic Crime Unit, said: “This was an extreme abuse of the trust placed in him and has caused a great deal of distress to everyone involved. I am pleased that he accepted responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty.”

Thames Valley Police would not say how Watts came to be in charge of the couple’s finances when asked by the Oxford Mail.