The Million Pound Swindle by Kate Snell

The Million Pound Swindle by Kate Snell

Previously published as The Care Home Swindler

'Beautifully written, immaculately constructed, thoroughly researched and raising a very important issue at a key moment.' MARK EASTON, Writer & Broadcaster

'Another gripping read. Snell has an extraordinary ability to turn these crime stories into something compelling and entertaining and important. And with an ease and style too.' DOMINIC TIGHE, Producer of Dragonfly

The gripping inside story of a major British scandal, a man who conned the elderly out of millions of pounds, and an expose of the terrifying reality of what happens to the elderly behind closed doors, from award-winning journalist Kate Snell.

Behind a façade of luxury and respectability, David Barton, owner of the Barton Park Nursing Home in Southport, swindled millions of pounds from the infirm amassing himself a fortune.

Along the way he was assisted by corrupt professionals: solicitors, bookkeepers and senior care home workers who became part of his fraudulent operations - co-conspirators who held positions of authority in the community, and in whom the elderly placed their trust.

With exclusive access to witnesses, court documents, victims' families, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service award-winning filmmaker and journalist Kate Snell goes on the trail of a multi-million pound fraud involving a property empire, luxury cars, false identities, forged documents and lies to unravel this astonishing story.

It also pulls back to look at abuses in the care home system more broadly - what more should be done to protect the most vulnerable in our communities?

Kate Snell is a BAFTA winning film director and producer, author and investigative journalist.

She has two international bestsellers under her belt: Diana Her last Love and Deceived. Both have been turned into major films: Diana starring Naomi Watts and Chasing Agent Freegard starring James Norton. For Diana Her Last Love Kate exploded the myth that Diana was to marry Dodi Fayed, travelling on her own to Pakistan to find out the real story behind the princess's last summer. For Deceived, she had unique access to thousands of pages of witness testimony allowing her to piece together the massive crime of the conman Robert Freegard.

She is a former reporter for BBC Woman's Hour, a BBC Panorama Producer and C4 Dispatches Director/Producer and executive producer for the BBC and C4 with a string of awards for investigative work. For many years she ran her own highly successful independent TV production company. She has written articles for numerous national and international press outlets.