Financial adviser who preyed on the bereaved jailed for £85k theft

A financial adviser has been jailed for five years for stealing a total of £85,000 from his victims in a theft campaign targeting the elderly and the recently bereaved.

Stewart Sermon, a self-employed financial adviser at B L Investments in Wigan, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two counts of theft and a further count of theft was ordered to lie on file. The Crown Prosecution Service said he deliberately targeted victims who had either recently lost a spouse or had no close relatives. Sermon was previously an adviser at the Burns Anderson network, part of Honister Capital which was put into administration in July 2012 and declared in default last year. He had also worked as an adviser for Barclays Financial Planning, Barclays Bank's advice...