A respected family doctor who sent "desperate" messages threatening to kill himself to a financial adviser he held a five year "vendetta" against was "self obsessed to the extreme", a court heard today
Retired GP David Crichton sent two messages and made a phone call to pensions expert Andrew Bolden, telling the adviser his own life "was at risk" if they did not speak.
The court heard Crichton made a series of complaints after receiving what he believed was bad financial advice, causing him to lose £300,000 from his £1.8m NHS pension.
The 64-year-old doctor had waged a "campaign of harassment" against pensions and personal wealth adviser Mr Bolden, who works for private banking firm Brown Shipley, culminating in the threatening messages last February.
During a five-day trial at Winchester Crown Court, prosecutors also alleged the retired doctor had turned to the dark web to find a hitman on a Chechen Mafia site to kill Mr Bolden.
Fining the doctor £6,000 today for the offences, the judge, Mr Justice James Dingemans said the doctor was a man "self obssessed in the extreme".
The judge told him: "There were disputes between you and Brown Shipley, but there are independent reports vindicating the advice given.
"You do not accept that and that is your constitutional right, but it's apparent you became obsessed with the issue.
"You became, in my judgement, self obsessed in the extreme. You made the decision not to pursue civil proceedings and your wife told you to drop it.
"You did not let it drop and became obsessed with your own feelings and what you thought might make you better.
"The messages plainly were a threat to commit suicide.
"Mr Bolden's victim impact statement shows that what started off as a client complaint had spiralled out of control.
"Mr Bolden said you have 'laid a business dispute at my family's door'. It also shows the shocking effect of finding out his name had been put on what is claimed to be a Chechen Mafia website."
After a day and a half of deliberations, jurors cleared Crichton of attempting to solicit the murder of the financial adviser.
But they convicted him of three counts of sending malicious communications.
Opening the case, prosecutor Simon Jones told the court Crichton had blamed Mr Bolden for "ruining his life".
After Brown Shipley attempted to block the doctor from contacting them or Mr Bolden, Crichton found the financial adviser's mobile number online and sent him text messages.
He also made a phone call to Mr Bolden, who was based at Brown Shipley's Edinburgh office at the time, claiming it was a personal call in order to get put through to him.
Mr Jones said: "In around 2012, Dr Crichton contacted Andrew Bolden for advice on his NHS pension.
"Dr Crichton delayed the advice and he missed certain tax deadlines, incurring penalties. He suffered significant financial loss, which he attributed to the financial advice given.
"The defendant was blaming Andrew Bolden for ruining his life.
"Various complaints were lodged to Brown Shipley and financial regulators. The complaints were extensively investigated.
"A financial review found Andrew Bolden had given correct advice and the complaint was unsubstantiated.
"Despite the findings, the defendant persisted in the pursuit of what he believed would be justice.
"Five years on from the advice, David Crichton sent Andrew Bolden a text to his work phone on February 4, 2017.
"In the message he said, 'I am contacting you out of desperation. I believe you are the only person who can help save my life. I have no wish to cause you problems. I am looking to help my family. I am sorry to sound dramatic I may only have a few days now'.
"Then on February 16, 2017, Andrew Bolden received a call while in his company's Edinburgh office.
"He was told it was a personal call and he took the call without realising who it was.
"David Crichton said, 'you don't need to talk to me, just listen. You know why, because my life is at risk'.
"Andrew Bolden told him he knew he could not speak to him and terminated the call.
"Then there was a final text on March 3, 2017, from Dr Crichton to Andrew Bolden.
"The defendant said, 'I remain desperate to speak to you. Since you know my life is at risk, I can't believe you are obstructing me in this'."
The prosecutor continued: "We say that all amounted to him threatening he would commit suicide and we submit there can be no other interpretation to those messages.
"The prosecution say the defendant is saying if Andrew Bolden was not to help that would, in some way, make him responsible for this fate.
"There is no challenge or dispute by the defendant that the messages were sent to Andrew Bolden.
"What the prosecution say is that the defendant's vendetta was getting out of control."
The court heard that as well as making the threatening calls to Mr Bolden, Crichton also placed his name and other personal details on a Chechen Mafia site which claimed to offer contract killings.
However, giving evidence during the trial Crichton, of Bournemouth, said while he had done that he was 'sure there was no risk' to the financial adviser as he knew the site 'was a scam'.
Prosecutor Mr Jones alleged that Crichton had selected the 'kill the bastard' option on the dark web site, which generated a charge of 4.25 Bitcoin, equivalent to around £3,800 at the time.
But, giving evidence, Crichton told jurors: "I was looking as a medical professional, as a guinea pig for a test to see if this would clear my head.
"I do accept that I put his details in the website because it was this idea of 'throwing away a thought'.
"I'm a research doctor and I thought it would be good to research - and actually, it made me feel better.
"I wanted to know if this was a good avenue to pursue to help people with suicidal thoughts.
"First of all I thought this was a scam and secondly I didn't pay any money, I was sure there was no risk to Andrew, I knew he was safe.
"I didn't think I had solicited his murder, it's totally ludicrous really and unbelievable."
The doctor added: "I didn't really think I was soliciting his murder, why would I want to murder someone I only wanted to speak to?"
Mitigating, David Wood, representing Crichton, said his client had become 'fixated' on the wrong target, and had lost his 'good name' .
Mr Wood said: "When fixated on the wrong target, it brought him to ruin. His desire to speak to Mr Bolden derived in part from him as a doctor looking to deal with what was in his head.
"At his heart, he has a sense of care and duty. He does not need to go to prison for this, it would be disproportionate."
Judge Mr Justice Dingemans ordered the doctor pay a £2,000 fine for each of the offences, totalling £6,000, and ordered he pay £1,500 costs.
He must also pay a £170 victim surcharge and an indefinite restraining order was put in place.
