A FORMER mayor of Westhoughton is to be sentenced in March for fraudulently using his ailing father’s details to obtain thousands of pounds in loans.

At James Gilfillan's trial last year Bolton Crown Court heard how he took control of his 82-year-old father’s finances as the widower's health deteriorated.

The jury concluded Gilfillan had fraudulently obtained seven loans, totalling £2,252 from payday lender Wonga and a £7,000 TSB loan, using his dad’s bank account and details and found him guilty of two counts of fraud in May 2016.

They could not agree a verdict on two other counts, one of theft of £23,500 and one of having an article for use in fraud, and the prosecution were given time to consider whether a re-trial would be sought.

All the parties returned to the crown court yesterday when the prosecution offered no evidence on the remaining two counts and Judge Timothy Stead recorded formal not guilty verdicts.

Gilfillan, aged 56, of Pocklington, Yorkshire, was granted conditional bail until his sentencing for the fraud offences on March 9.

The former Labour councillor was Mayor of Westhoughton in the 2007/08 municipal year.