A BEREAVEMENT counsellor fleeced a frail elderly York widow out of thousands of pounds, a jury has heard.

Peter Michael Powers, 50, allegedly stole £250 a day out of Betsey Finlay's bank account while she lived in a house with peeling wallpaper, slept in a chair and at times did not have enough money in her purse to pay for small shopping items.

Tom Storey, opening the prosecution, claimed that in the four months immediately after the death of her husband Raymond, Powers reduced the couple's £10,000 bank account to under £4.

Mrs Finlay entrusted the counsellor with the management of her finances and he arranged for her to raise £14,400 on her house's equity. More than half of that money also disappeared in a matter of months.

"It is clear that Mrs Finlay didn't receive any of the money that came out of her account," said Mr Storey at York Crown Court.

"He (Powers) was the only person apart from Mrs Finlay herself who could have withdrawn or received the money. The prosecution say quite simply there can be no doubt this money was obtained dishonestly by the defendant."

Powers, of Sycamore Place, New Earswick, denies theft between November, 1998, and April, 2000.

Mrs Finlay, late of Wellington Street, off Heslington Road, York, was admitted to York District Hospital at the end of March 2000 and died there in July 2000.

Her niece, Doreen Hodgson, told the jury her aunt gave her a gift of £5,000 in December, 1999, with the words: "There might not be anything left when I pass away."

Mrs Finlay "thought the world" of Powers, who visited her very frequently and helped her, said Mrs Hodgson.

Her aunt slept in a chair downstairs because she was too frail to go upstairs and the house needed work doing to it. But although Powers told her the £14,400 was raised to carry out home improvements, no work was ever done.

Mr Storey said CRUSE assigned Powers to counsel Mrs Finlay when her husband died in October, 1998, and, unusually, he arranged the funeral.

He also persuaded Age Concern to make him one of its volunteers so he could work with her on its behalf.

Although Mr and Mrs Finlay had apparently lived frugally on £50 a week plus their state pension, after the husband died someone used the widow's cashpoint card to withdraw £250 daily from her bank accounts, including on Christmas Day, sometimes in the early hours and on one occasion at 3.22am.

Mrs Finlay's pension was taken out of the bank almost as soon as it was paid in, and in the second half of 1999 Powers arranged for her to raise £14,400 on the equity of her house.

He maintained it was for home improvements, but no work was done, alleged Mr Storey.

In April, 2000, when it became clear that Mrs Finlay could not return home, social worker Diana Beadle checked her finances. She was so concerned about what she found she called in detectives.

The trial continues.

Updated: 11:44 Wednesday, February 27, 2002