A RETIREMENT home manager stole hundreds of pounds from pensioners who thought they were paying for a holiday.

Michael Tester, 62, took money from scores of elderly people and their relatives, under the pretence of booking them a holiday to Jersey.

Instead he admitted “frittering” the money away.

Tester appeared at Colchester Magistrates’ Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to 26 counts of stealing £245 from members of the Royal British Legion.

Tester, the treasurer of the Royal Legion Holiday Fund, paid a deposit of £3,050 to Sun Island Holidays for the six-day trip, which included accommodation at the Ambassadeur Hotel, and the coach trip there and back.

But the cheque Tester sent to the company to pay the remaining balance of £5,842 was rejected by his bank and the company cancelled the holiday.

Tester, of Wardens Flat, Havenscroft Court, Walton, later handed himself in to police and confessed he had spent the money. The majority of the deposit was then lost in administration fees, leaving devastated holidaymakers with a disappointing £26 refund for their cancelled trip.

Tamzin Sharp, prosecuting, said: “He can’t remember what he purchased with the money, or what he spent it on.

“He wrote to the victims and said his wife was due a payout on her pension, and he would pay them all back out of that.”

James Baird Murray, mitigating, said Tester had been in financial difficulty for some time because of ill health, and had been having trouble paying his mortgage.

He said: “My client is mortified. He feels terrible for those people who have lost a not inconsiderable sum of £245.

“But he has not been living the life of Riley at the expense of those people.”

The case has been adjourned until May 21 for sentencing at Colchester Magistrates’ Court.

Chairman of the bench, Ilona Perkins-Van Mil, said magistrates would consider all the options when sentencing.

He was given unconditional bail.

Speaking to the Gazette outside the court, Mr Tester said he “bitterly regretted” his actions.

He said: “I want to assure those people every penny will be returned to them.”