A FINANCIAL advisor promised to invest vast amounts of money for families as they approached retirement but used it to try to save his struggling business.

Brian Norlund was branded "arrogant" by a judge for refusing to accept his companies were doomed and for thinking he could "borrow" from customers until things improved.

The 51-year-old was yesterday jailed for four-and-a-half years after he admitted a string of dishonesty charges stretching back to 2002, which amount to £360,000.

His victims included a couple from Yarm, Stockton, who lost almost £180,000, and a family from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, who lost £150,000.

Teesside Crown Court was told Norlund's financial firms - all under the umbrella of Abacus - were "maintained through financial chicanery".

Peter Makepeace, prosecuting, described it as a fragile business which Norlund pretended was thriving by manipulating friends, staff, colleagues and associates.

He stole from the Yarm couple after they were awarded more than £300,000 for an accident at work, which led to the husband having a leg amputated.

Norlund promised to invest the cash in blue chip companies in no-risk deals, but instead the couple's much-needed nest egg disappeared.

The corrupt businessman also took a total of £150,000 from a mother and daughter in Bishop Auckland to invest, but used it on a doomed property deal for two bungalows.

A third of the sum was in a trust for the woman's two granddaughters, but an innocent business partner of Norlund's has since struck a deal which will allow the victim to get the money back when the houses are sold.

After the case, Detective Constable Rachel Peake, whose investigation has put Norlund behind bars, said: "I am pleased with the result. From a police perspective, we hope this sends out a very clear message to fraudsters.

He wasn't just an inept business person, his conduct was deceitful, dishonest and callous.

"When his finances spiralled out of control, instead of being honest and accepting he was a failure, he went to target some of his most vulnerable clients for money.

"He returned to them, and in desperation he said they should cash in the very investments he had previously recommended.

This was a blatant abuse of trust towards his clients.

"These vulnerable people went to him for advice and trusted him. He betrayed that trust.

"This case shows that fraud is not a victimless crime. Lives of people have been dramatically affected.

"The most despicable element of this case is not that he used the money to stabilise his business, but the evidence shows he went on holiday every time he received a deposit."

Brian Russell, mitigating, said Norlund, of Stephen Street, Hartlepool, had not led a champagne lifestyle with the money, but spent it on his ailing firms.

Mr Russell said: "He has ruined his own life, as well as those of others. He has lost everything - his good name, his standing in the community, which was previously of a high level, and ultimately, his liberty."

Mr Russell said Norlund - a financial sector worker for more than 25 years - thought the buoyant market would help him repay the money he took.

The court was told he hoped to revive the fortunes of the business and sell his interests at a large profit.

But Mr Makepeace told the court: "Whatever the defendant's hopes and beliefs, realistically Abacus was an inherently unsound institution."

He said Norlund's accounts of what he had done during police interviews were a "masterclass in obfuscation and avoidance" as he denied wrongdoing.

The judge, Recorder David Dobbin, rejected a claim that Norlund had shown remorse, and told him: "These were mean-spirited offences - preying on elderly people and, in some cases, people who were relying on you to do a proper job.

"The sad thing about all this is that there have been times when you could do a proper job and give proper advice about investments, but because your business was failing, you took those sums to prop it up.

"That was very much because of your arrogance in you thinking you were creating a group of companies that could be sold to a larger organisation, making you a large sum of money."

Norlund admitted 11 counts of obtaining money or a monetary transfer by deception, as well as an unconnected grievous bodily harm assault outside a nightclub.

Six months of the sentence was for punching a young woman so hard in the face that she suffered a fractured cheek bone and fractured eye socket.

The court was told Norlund's partner had been attacked by his victim's friend and he lashed out after he was thrown from the Stockton club by door staff.