A Romeo pensioner at the centre of a 'love triangle' was yesterday cleared of all wrongdoing - after giving his seriously ill girlfriend's life savings to his wife-to-be. William Dunn admitted sending more than £110,000 of Beatson cancer nurse Lynda Grant's money to bus firm boss Karen Dolan, after meeting them both on dating website match.com.
But the jury in his trial found a charge of embezzlement not proven by majority, after he claimed it was an investment and that both of his former partners knew about it. He had access to frugal Lynda's bank accounts and NHS pension, as he was granted Power of Attorney over her, because she was taken into hospital and fell into a coma.
Lynda, who has never received a penny of her life savings back, was later moved to a care home due to her health conditions. While he was in charge of 63-year-old Lynda's affairs, retired builder Dunn, 69, began a relationship with Dolan, 59.
Lynda had previously told her children to make sure that Dunn was "okay" should anything happen to her. He funnelled her cash into the accounts of his new love interest, so she could plough it into her "troubled" coach company, Colchri Limited.
The couple then married at a "lovely, plush hotel", unbeknownst to Lynda, his partner of three years, and her family. Lynda only learned he had married months after the wedding, when her daughter spotted wedding pictures on Dunn's Facebook profile.
But Dunn and Dolan split just weeks before their first wedding anniversary, amid claims Dunn had been cheating on her. Lynda, who has had to retire due to her health problems following complications caused by a bladder operation, noticed that the bulk of her money had vanished after looking at her accounts.
She confronted Dunn over the missing cash and he promised her he would pay the cash back. But the police were called in when the money was not returned, and Dunn was arrested and charged with embezzlement.
Lynda told his Paisley Sheriff Court trial: "I'm skint now. I can't remember an exact figure [of how much was left in my accounts when I came out of the care home], it was probably a few hundred. The money that I should've had from the sale of my house and my savings, that was gone."
Dunn claimed he, Lynda and her teacher son, Alan Grant, had agreed to reduce her assets so she would not be liable for care home costs. And he claimed he agreed with then new wife Dolan that he would invest Lynda's life savings in her firm.
He said it was to be used as a "short-term loan" by the coach company, which would be used as a float for the business, and would see Lynda receiving the money back in full, plus a profit of 3.5 per cent. No paperwork was ever produced to prove the loan existed and Dolan insisted it was not a loan and that Dunn had told her the money was from his own offshore account.
Lynda and Alan also denied ever agreeing for Dunn, of Elderslie, Renfrewshire, to make investments on Lynda's behalf to reduce her assets. Yesterday, the jury in Dunn's trial took just under three and a half hours to find the embezzlement charge against him not proven by majority.
Sheriff Bruce Erroch told cancer survivor Dunn, who walks with the aid of crutches due to complications from type 1 diabetes: "You are free to go."
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