A PENSIONER who was tricked out of his savings by his gambling-addicted neighbour saw him jailed after warning him “there’s no hiding place”.

Handyman Gary Cameron stole more than £17,000 from Ellis Manners and left him with an unfinished kitchen and needing medication for stress.

Mr Manners, who worked for 26 years at the Cowley car plant, sat in the public gallery at Oxford Crown Court as Cameron, who had earlier admitted a charge of theft, was jailed for eight months.

The 76-year-old, of Colwell Road, Berinsfield, met father-of-four Cameron over a garden fence in 2007.

Having struck up a friendship, the 43-year-old, who has a previous conviction for benefit fraud, agreed to do some work on Mr Manners’ house, but asked for more and more money for materials.

He made excuses about a pending inheritance and cheques being in the post when he failed to repay the loans or do any work.

Cameron was paid in cash, often daily, and the money was taken from three bank accounts and two pensions, leaving Mr Manners struggling to pay his bills.

Outside court, Mr Manners, who now has to go to the county court to get his money back, said: “He cleaned me out.

“My family helped me out for a few weeks but I was in the red and you know how much they charge you for that. It was £25 every time I went overdrawn.”

He added: “I don’t trust people so much now. If someone asked for a tenner they wouldn’t get it from me.”

Mr Manners, who has lived in Berinsfield since 1958, confronted Cameron after hearing he was moving to Ashbury, near Swindon.

He said: “I found out on the Friday and he was moving on the Saturday, but he didn’t tell me.

“The last words I said to him were ‘there’s no hiding place’.”

David Rhodes, defending Cameron, said his client had lost one house and remortgaged another due to his gambling and had attempted suicide in 2005.

He said: “In my view, this was not an act of wickedness, of a man preying on the kindness of an elderly man, but this was an act of weakness on behalf of a man in the grip of an addiction to gambling as destructive as an addiction to drugs or alcohol.”

Jailing Cameron for eight months, Judge Julian Hall said: “For about two years you lived a lie and the victim of your lies was Mr Manners and as a result of your lies you stole £17,000 from him.

“He was in his 70s. You’re supposed to have a peaceful life in your 70s. You tricked him. It’s as simple as that.”

Mr Manners added: “All I wanted was the work done or my money back. I didn’t want him to go to prison.”

As he was jailed, Cameron, who sobbed throughout the court hearing, shouted: “Sorry, Ellis.”