Carer who fleeced dementia-suffering pensioner jailed - The Leamington Observer

Carer who fleeced dementia-suffering pensioner jailed

Leamington Editorial 5th May, 2016 Updated: 28th Oct, 2016   0

A CARER who ‘played a game’ of pretending to be an old woman’s adopted daughter cruelly fleeced the 91-year-old out of more than £80,000.

But Suzette Smith, herself a pensioner, was finally caught after building society staff became suspicious of the large sums her confused victim was withdrawing.

The 66 year-old of Sharpe Close, Warwick, was jailed for two years and five months after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to charges of theft and fraud.

Prosecutor Rebecca Wade said in 2011 Smith’s victim, who is now 91 and has been diagnosed as suffering from dementia, was admitted to Warwick Hospital following a fall.




She was discharged with a care package which included daily visits to her home in Warwick by carers including Smith.

But in October 2012 the old lady cancelled that and instead took on Smith as a private carer.


And from then on Smith took advantage of her position to repeatedly take the old lady to her bank and building society ATMs to withdraw large amounts of cash which she then kept.

It had been alleged Smith stole around £103,000 in that way – but she entered her plea on the basis that she did not steal all the money that was withdrawn, and the actual figure was £80,000.

But in addition there was the fraud charge which involved a transfer of £4,000 from her victim’s account to Smith’s own account to pay for a holiday.

Matters came to light in January last year after the victim’s building society became concerned because the elderly customer, accompanied by Smith, was withdrawing a lot of money and seemed confused.

A review of her account activity showed that in a period from June 2011 to January 2013 there had been just ten cash withdrawals for a total of £500.

But that had suddenly risen in 2013 to 54 withdrawals of a total of £27,200 and in 2014 to 106 withdrawals, mostly of £500 at a time, totalling £55,000.

The police were contacted, and when Smith was arrested officers who searched her home saw evidence of a luxury lifestyle, including a new kitchen and conservatory, and found £2,000 in cash stashed in a shoe box in her bedroom.

When she was interviewed Smith denied any wrong-doing, claiming she had been concerned about the amount of money the old lady was withdrawing and believed she was being ripped off by other people.

And she went on to deny having any money apart from the £4,000 transfer which she claimed had been a loan for her new kitchen – although there was no evidence of any repayments.

Eventually Smith, whose thefts continued after she had been given a community order for a benefit fraud in 2013, said she would ‘play a game’ on the old lady by pretending to be her adopted daughter, and agreed she had had several thousand pounds.

Marcus Harry, defending, said: “Her behaviour was wholly criminal. She is still in the process of coming to terms with what she’s done.”

Jailing Smith, Judge Judge Andrew Lockhart QC told her: “This was a long-running and sophisticated deception. There was a pretence that you were her adopted daughter, and I find that to be an aggravating factor.

“The public must have confidence in carers who look after the most vulnerable in society.”

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