Disgraced North Yorkshire coroner and solicitor Jeremy Cave was jailed for three and a half years this afternoon for betraying the trust of vulnerable and grieving people.

Judge Les Spittle said Cave had "besmirched" the name of an honourable profession and it was unlikely he would ever work in a professional capacity again.

Defence barrister Eric Elliot said that Cave's life was now in ruins.

The sentence came after a jury at Teesside Crown Court yesterday found him guilty of stealing more than £150,000 from money in his care. The 11 men and one woman acquitted him on one charge of stealing £9,900.

Today, they returned to court to decide their verdicts on three more charges which together alleged that he stole a further £20,590. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and was discharged.

Cave, 53, coroner for Selby and the western district of North Yorkshire, and who ran a solicitors firm in Market Place, Thirsk, had denied ten charges of theft from the estates of deceased people, all but one of whom came from North Yorkshire. None of the charges related to his work as a coroner. For two days, he waited in the corridor and rooms of Teesside Crown Court while the jury considered its verdicts. At 4.30pm, yesterday afternoon (Thursday 06/02/03) Judge Spittle called the jurors back into Courtroom 11 to send them home for a second consecutive night. But then they revealed they had reached some verdicts.

Cave stood impassive in the dock as the foreman declared "guilty" six times. Two of the guilty verdicts were unanimous, two were by a majority of 11 to one and two by a majority of ten to two. The six verdicts convicted him of stealing more than £150,000 from a total of six estates.

He showed no reaction to the single verdict of "not guilty" and he gave no indication of his feelings as the judge announced that he must return today (Friday 07/02/03) to learn the remaining three verdicts. He then returned to his home in the Thirsk area, believed to be in Sowerby. He had previously lived in Balk, near Thirsk.

The trial began on November 18 and, with interruptions has lasted nearly nine weeks. Witnesses have included relatives and friends of the ten deceased people.

The jury heard evidence that Cave charged huge fees for winding up their estates and concealed his bills from his clients, their executors. He then defrauded heirs by transferring money from their inheritances into his business account.

Cave stole more than £76,000 from one estate alone, that of 89-year-old Ethel Johnson, from Thirsk. From a second estate, that of Harry Manning, 83, of Thirsk, he stole £38,925. The money should have gone to three charities - the Friends of Lambert Hospital in Thirsk, the Salvation Army and the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.

The one not guilty verdict acquitted Cave of stealing £9,968 from the estate of Lilian Mawer, formerly of Northallerton.

Updated: 17:58 Friday, February 07, 2003