A CORRUPT former solicitor pocketed more than £100,000 from vulnerable elderly clients.

Paul Arscott took the sums from pensioners for whom he acted as a legal power of attorney in Brighton and Hove.

The 49-year-old was spared a prison sentence when he admitted three offences at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Police said he conned the elderly, two of whom were in their 90s, out of tens of thousands of pounds each.

It included a £23,000 theft from a Brighton man who died in 2012, aged 92. Arscott was the executor of his estate, and stole the money which had been left to a charity.

He repaid this amount before his trial.

Arscott was also guilty of taking £60,000 from a Hove woman who died aged 95 last year. The money came from her savings, and he committed fraud by abuse of his position as a solicitor with power of attorney from 2011 onwards.

He repaid £50,000 to her estate before the trial.

Finally he admitted fraud by abuse of position on a woman aged 76 from Hove. He took £25,000 between 2014 and 2016, but repaid the sum after conviction.

Detective Constable Nlkki Thiim said; "Arscott used his position as a solicitor and power of attorney to access monies to make himself a very rich man – the vulnerable elderly victims had no capacity to make any decisions and were considered to be suffering from severe dementia, so had no idea what the person who they have entrusted to look after them has been doing."