A COUNTY Durham man blasted his mother and father to death with a sawn-off shotgun to inherit a £230,000 will after they survived a car crash he had faked months earlier, a court heard.

Stephen “Nic” Seddon murdered Robert Seddon, 68, and Patricia, 65, in their suburban home because they survived after he drove a car into a Manchester canal with them strapped in the back seats in an earlier bid to kill them, it is alleged.

The 46-year-old father-of-three had debts and an insatiable need for cash, Manchester Crown Court was told.

Despite the elderly and caring couple gifting their son £40,000 in cash and buying his home to keep a roof over his head, his parents had to die because he stood to inherit everything in their wills, it is alleged.

He shot them both at close range – then planted the gun in his father’s lap to make it look like a murder-suicide at the family home in Sale, Greater Manchester, the court was told.

Seddon, from Benevente Street, Seaham, County Durham, denies two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Peter Wright QC, opening the case for the prosecution, said: “The person responsible not only wanted rid of Robert and Patricia Seddon, a quiet, unassuming, elderly couple. He wanted to lay a false trail.

“A trail, we say, he hoped would lead away rather than towards a man with a considerable motive to kill these two people. That man was their son, the defendant Stephen Seddon.”

Mr and Mrs Seddon enjoyed a modest but comfortable life, with Mr Seddon getting an occupational pension from British Airways and Mrs Seddon her state pension.

The couple made a will in October 2009, naming each other as beneficiary if one of them died, with their assets valued at £356,000 and, after liabilities, an estate worth £230,000. But if they both died, Stephen Seddon got the lot, the court heard. “That’s why they both had to die,” Mr Wright added.

The trial continues.