Son's horror at discovering his father had a secret £500,000 gambling addiction to online slot machines only when he was jailed for stealing from his former employer

  • Adam Bradford, 25, said his happy life was shattered overnight with the revelation that his father, David, 61, had stolen £50,000 from an ex-employer
  • Dad was jailed in 2014 - and it was only then his gambling problem was revealed
  • New legislation passed to cut the maximum stake on fixed odds terminals to £2
  • Bradfords are both campaigning for the restrictions to extend to online gambling

Adam Bradford, 25, from Sheffield, said his happy life was shattered overnight with the revelation that his father, David, 61, had stolen £50,000 from an ex-employer to fund his all-consuming habit

Adam Bradford, 25, from Sheffield, said his happy life was shattered overnight with the revelation that his father, David, 61, had stolen £50,000 from an ex-employer to fund his all-consuming habit

A young entrepreneur has revealed he nearly killed himself in the aftermath of his father's £500,000 to online slot machines.

Adam Bradford, 25, from Sheffield, said his happy life was shattered overnight with the revelation that his father, David, 61, had stolen £50,000 from an ex-employer to fund his all-consuming habit.

His dad was jailed for two years for fraud in 2014 - and it was only then his son discovered his parent's gambling problem.

As new legislation to cut the maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals to £2 was passed, the Bradfords are both campaigning for the restrictions to extend to the 'silent killer' of online gambling.  

Adam said: 'I'm the son who, at 21, became the dad. I had to look after my family, help us to survive and spend every penny I had on keeping a roof over our heads.

'It was a toxic situation. I lost my youth, and the chance to be a normal 21-year-old.'

Still on the brink of losing the family home - bought for £30,000 in 1983 and now worth £250,000, but remortgaged for £300,000 by his dad - while Adam welcomes any initiative to address gambling, he says the government's latest move is not nearly tough enough.

'I'm glad the issues are on the agenda. We're edging ever closer to properly cracking down, but there's still a huge problem with online gambling,' he explained.

'It's freely advertised and you're only ever a click away from your next bet. Links to sites, incentivised with a free bet, are splashed across social media, which most teenagers use. We're priming our young people to get hooked on gambling.

'I know the industry makes billions, but that's not a good enough reason to risk lives. Online gambling is a silent killer. It nearly killed me, and I don't even gamble.'

Growing up, Adam, who admits to sinking into suicidal depression after David was jailed, recalls a happy childhood with his dad, his mum Denise, 66, and twin brothers Alex and Ryan, 22.

Living in a modest home and able to afford a holiday every year, enjoying a respectable middle classed existence, he never felt that finances were a worry.

Growing up, Adam, who admits to sinking into suicidal depression after David was jailed, recalls a happy childhood with his dad, his mum Denise, 66, and twin brothers Alex and Ryan, 22

Growing up, Adam, who admits to sinking into suicidal depression after David was jailed, recalls a happy childhood with his dad, his mum Denise, 66, and twin brothers Alex and Ryan, 22

As new legislation to cut the maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals to £2 was passed, the Bradfords are both campaigning for the restrictions to extend to the 'silent killer' of online gambling

As new legislation to cut the maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals to £2 was passed, the Bradfords are both campaigning for the restrictions to extend to the 'silent killer' of online gambling

No one realised that David, who had started gambling at 19, had become a hopeless addict and was funding his habit with everything from payday loans to grand scale fraud.

Speaking back in 2015, after being released from prison on license, the former finance controller and school governor said: 'The terrifying thing is that you can spend £100 every 20 seconds, £300 a minute and £18,000 an hour. It's almost unrestricted.

'I knew one man who'd been gambling from the age of 12, who every week, spent a whole week's wages in one hour.

'Personally, I was like a hamster on a wheel thinking that a big win was just around the corner.'

And when Adam looks back on his early life, he can now see that signs of his father's increasingly serious addiction were there for all to see.

When he was around 10, he remembers David's work pattern becoming frenetic as he went from job to job.

'I didn't know what was happening at the time, but I now realise that was him trying to make as much money as possible to fund his habit,' said Adam.

'When I think back on our family holidays too, I remember him spending countless hours in arcades on the slot machines. Being so young, though, I just thought that's what adults did.'

Desperate to cover his tracks, David turned to crime, swindling £50,000 out of his company by submitting invoices more regularly than he should have done, so he was paid more than he earned - a fraud which went unnoticed for around 18 months

Desperate to cover his tracks, David turned to crime, swindling £50,000 out of his company by submitting invoices more regularly than he should have done, so he was paid more than he earned - a fraud which went unnoticed for around 18 months

With debts secretly mounting, David took out payday loans and credit cards - even managing to remortgage the family home without anybody knowing.

'The mortgage now is well over £300,000. The house only cost my parents £30,000 originally,' said Adam.

'We're on the brink of losing it. We've got no idea what will happen or where we'll go then.'

Desperate to cover his tracks, David turned to crime, swindling £50,000 out of his company by submitting invoices more regularly than he should have done, so he was paid more than he earned - a fraud which went unnoticed for around 18 months.

After bosses called him in to address his invoicing irregularities, an internal investigation was launched, then the police were called.

'The rest of the family had no idea that we were in a crippling situation, that was about to explode in our faces,' said Adam.

'The day before everything happened, Dad was talking to my mum for ages in the kitchen and I got this sense things were horribly wrong.

'He then came in to my brothers and I, saying, 'I've got something to tell you. I need to go to court tomorrow.'

'We were obviously all shocked and worried, but he said it was something to do with a former company that he needed to give advice on, making it sound like he was more of a witness.'

Far from it, the next day – April 11, 2014 - David was jailed.

When, hours after the hearing, he had still not made contact, his wife and sons were distraught with worry.

Adam added: 'He hadn't even told us which court he was at, so we were in complete turmoil waiting to hear.'

Then, at around 4:30pm that afternoon, David's solicitor called.

'He told us, 'I'm really sorry, but he won't be coming home tonight. He's received a two year sentence for fraud,'' Adam recalled. 'It made me realise how little we knew about him.'

Sobbing and hugging each other for comfort as they waited for a call from David, the family combed the house, searching for answers.

When Adam looks back on his early life, he can now see that signs of his father's increasingly serious addiction were there for all to see

When Adam looks back on his early life, he can now see that signs of his father's increasingly serious addiction were there for all to see

And, as David was being processed at Altcourse Prison in Liverpool, Adam found some documents confirming the remortgage and threatening repossession due to unmet payments.

'I had to tell Mum that the house she thought she owned wasn't hers anymore,' he said. 'Everything he did just made me wonder if Dad really loved us, or if he just used us to keep up appearances.'

Over the next few days, Adam pieced together what had happened by speaking to local journalists and requesting a copy of the court records, before going to visit his dad in jail.

Painting a grim picture, he said: 'He was put in a category B prison, with murderers and rapists.

'When we saw him, he didn't seem scared though. He just seemed blank. He was reduced to this thin, pale man in an orange tabard, who we were allowed to speak to for 30 minutes before he was marched back to his cell.

'We worried about him every single day in there. Once we were on the phone to him when we heard all this shouting and then the line went dead.

'Turns out one prisoner had stabbed another to death behind him. Thinking about your dad being in a place like that was incredibly tough.'

In the wake of his dad's imprisonment, Adam began suffering with his own mental health – so much so, he even made an attempt on his life.

Working tirelessly running a marketing business to keep the family afloat, he found the constant struggle too much to handle - finally seeking help for his increasingly black depression three months after his dad was locked up.

But, when, eight months into his sentence, David was released and welcomed back into the family home, it was as a recovering addict - which he remains to this day, not having gambled in four years.

Adam added: 'While dad was in jail, we'd all learned more and realised this is an addiction. The right thing to do was to give him the chance to rebuild the family.'

Now, father and son have formed a formidable team - campaigning together to change gambling laws – particularly surrounding online sites.

Growing up, Adam, who admits to sinking into suicidal depression after David was jailed, recalls a happy childhood with his dad, his mum Denise, 66, and twin brothers Alex and Ryan, 22

Growing up, Adam, who admits to sinking into suicidal depression after David was jailed, recalls a happy childhood with his dad, his mum Denise, 66, and twin brothers Alex and Ryan, 22

Today, they are due to deliver a letter to Culture Secretary Matt Hancock, calling for the crackdown on high street betting shops to be extended to the internet and for a complete advertising ban.

They are also calling for funds from the increase in Remote Gaming Duty tax, announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, to 'cover any negative impact on the public finances' because of the changes, to be used to help recovering addicts and their families.

'There's no need for advertisers to run rampant. If you want to gamble, you know where to go,' said Adam.

'There's no support out there for families like mine, and that needs to change. The effects of this will last a lifetime. We've lost friends, because people have struggled to accept that we genuinely had no idea.

'But a gambler doesn't come home drunk or high. Mum and Dad didn't have a joint account and, like any addict, he went to great lengths to cover his tracks.

'We will help him all we can, but he also has to help himself, which I think he's doing. We check his bank account every day, but we can't be his keepers, and it does make my heart sink that he can log on at any time and make another bet.

'Living with the fear that, with just £1, this can start all over again is hard. Now, I'm just hoping that telling my story will help others.'