A financial adviser who stole nearly £500,000 from a 91-year-old woman and her husband who suffers dementia has been jailed for five years.

Mark Townson, 52, who took the savings to pay off his own debts, still denies stealing the money from the couple, Paisley Sheriff Court heard.

He earned the pensioners' trust, saying he got so close to the housewife and her concord pilot husband that they became friends.

The court heard he siphoned £465,090 off their £1.4million nest-egg between January 2011 and December 2012.

Townson, of Baillieston, Glasgow, claimed the initial £385,090 he took was a gift.

He said they gave him the money to help him after he had spent much of his mother's estate before she died.

Townson, a former professional cricketer in Australia, said next £80,000 was taken as an investment, promising to make the couple 5 per cent profit, or £4,000. He concocted the scheme while working for a Virgin Money branch in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire.

He still maintained in court that he had a good job for the elderly couple, while advising them on how to deal with their savings between 2002 and 2013.

Townson worked for financial firm Legal and General at the time of the thefts, having been with the company for 18 years.

Sentencing, Sheriff Tom McCartney said he breached their trust.

"The only appropriate way of dealing with this matter is a substantial prison sentence."

Virgin Money said the company took the safety and security of our customers extremely seriously and said the vigilance of its colleagues had helped to identity the 'appalling crime.'

A Legal & General spokesman said they had reported it to police and the money had been all returned.