Brian Norlund, 51, operated under the company Abacus Independent Financial Planning.

Teesside Crown Court heard he was once 'an honest businessman' but went on to con seven clients after advising them to invest in blue chip companies.

Peter Makepeace, prosecuting, said: "Norlund was once an honest businessman, but when his companies started to flounder he deceived the people who trusted him most.

"He extorted this money by cashing the investments in early and used it to fund his own financial business."

Norlund, of Stephen Street, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of deception.

Judge David Dobbin told him: "Your arrogance appears in the police interview and the answers you gave, I give you no credit at all.

"You preyed on the elderly and confused people who relied upon you to do a proper job."

He was sentenced to four years for nine of those counts and another 12 months for the last two counts, to run concurrently.

Pensioner Dorothy Bullock was duped out of £179,500 over an 18-month period from March 2002 to September 2003.

Outside the court, Dorothy said: "I have done this for my husband Bernie who sadly died two months ago – today would have been our wedding anniversary.

"We trusted Norlund with our money and thought he would invest it wisely, what makes this worse is that over the years we worked with him, he became our friend.

"He abused us as clients and he abused our friendship".

Her husband Bernie had received a compensation settlement of £250,000 after he had an accident at work, when he lost his leg.

Detective Constable Rachel Peake, of Cleveland Police, said: "Norlund has shown a blatant abuse of trust towards his clients.

"These vulnerable people went to him for advice, they trusted him implicitly and he destroyed that trust – and in some cases, friendships had developed.

"I think the most despicable element of this case is that Norlund did not just use the victims' money which equated to over £365,000 to try to stabilise his businesses, it is clearly evident that after each victim gave him capital, Norlund went on holiday to exotic locations all over the world."

Norlund was also sentenced to six months in prison after he pleaded guilty to assault, an unprovoked attack outside a nightclub which left the victim with a fractured cheekbone and eye socket.