Ealing man subjected parents to years of 'physical, verbal and financial abuse'
Police in Ealing have intervened in the case of a drug addict from Greenford who subjected his parents to years of abuse and violence.
The 47-year-old man - who hasn't been named- came to the UK as a child with his mother and father when war broke out in Iran in 1982. He was brought up in a wealthy family, privately educated and finished his education with a PHD and secured a job as an engineer.
He turned to drugs after being diagnosed with a medical condition and then sought financial help from his parents.
The man was employed in the family business but his behaviour was described as 'unpredictable' and his father had to sell both his companies.
He was given money from the sale but squandered it over a four year period to buy drugs.
Police say over the years he subjected his parents to a daily torrent of abuse and violence if they refused to hand over money, estimated to be around £500 a week.
He would contact the bank pretending to be his father, and transfer large sums of money into his own account. He ran up huge bills in his father's name on mobile phone contracts. His father also paid out over £8,000 to pawn shops buying back an expensive watch that the son had been given as present when he finished university. Eventually all of the money ran out and the family ended up living off state benefits.
The parents didn't want to prosecute their son but Police and the Local Authority supported Domestic Abuse Reduction Team (DART) supported them to attend court.
Ealing has now secured a Non Molestation Order and a Occupation Order against the man - which means he has to leave the address and is prohibited from contacting his family for the next twelve months.
DC Rebecca Atkins of the Domestic Abuse Response Team said:
"The family has been victim of systematic physical, verbal and financial domestic abuse on 30 occasions since 2011. These were only the matters actually reported to police and we have been informed by the family that this abuse has occurred daily and that they only called police when the violence became physical and they feared for their personal safety.
''It took enormous amounts of courage to obtain these orders against their only son as both mother and father were struggling with strong parental feelings however they could not continue with this daily worry. His father stated that they had to be 'cruel to be kind' in this instance in order for their son to obtain help for his drug abuse and to improve their quality of life.
30th September 2014