Judge spares sleep deprived mum jail after she fiddled £21,000 from NHS to spend on buying extra care for her disabled son
Her son suffers from severe muscular dystrophy, which requires round-the-clock care
MERCY has been given to a sleep deprived mother who fiddled more than £21,000 from the NHS so she could afford extra care for her disabled son.
A judge spared Susan Rennolds from jail time after she submitted forged invoices for respite care, which claimed that a hospice in Oxford had charged £300 a night for looking after her son Michael rather than £100.
Compassion was shown for the 70-year-old mum in court after it was revealed she was desperate for the money because the NHS could not pay for the overnight carers needed to look after Michael at home.
Mrs Rennolds avoided an immediate jail sentence and a Judge praised the way she devoted most of her life to care for her 34-year-old disabled son.
Michael suffers from severe muscular dystrophy, which requires round-the-clock care and specially adapted living arrangements.
Michael's mother is his sole carer and looks after him at her home in Paignton, Devon, which has been specially adapted with hoists and other equipment to make living there possible.
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The NHS pays for day time care but she is left on her own from 4.00 pm to 9.30 am every night.
In addition to looking after her son, Mrs Rennolds also works part time helping transport disabled children to school.
She devoted her whole life to to looking after Michael on her own after her marriage broke up when he was aged just five.
She admitted fraud and was sentenced to nine months in jail in Exeter Crown Court, but the sentence was suspended for 18-months by Recorder John Williams.
He told her: "I am not going to send you to prison. You are 70 and it there are 1,000 pities that you have lost your good character in circumstances in which people who know the full facts will undoubtedly have a degree of sympathy for you.
"Your son Michael suffers from a muscular wasting disease and everyone must have the utmost sympathy for him and sympathy for you. Very few will understand how hard it is to look after someone in these circumstances.
"The taxpayer lost this money but you did not spend it on high living. I have no reason to doubt that you spent it on further care for Michael.
"If I sent you to prison it would be the most callous and awful thing to do in relation to Michael. I wish you and Michael well."
Prosecuting the desperate mum, Mr Nigel Wraith said Mrs Rennolds was allowed to organise respite care for Michael at the Helen and Douglas House hostel in Oxford and reclaim the cost from the Torbay and South Devon Health and Care NHS Trust.
She had falsified invoices between 2007 and 2013 and claimed up to £200 a night more than the true cost, thus defrauding the NHS of a total of £21,200.
She told police she spent the money on paying for night time carers when Michael was at home.
Mr Piers Norsworthy, defending, said Mrs Rennolds only income is her pension and a small salary form her part time job as a special needs assistant.
He said while Michael's needs are funded through a variety of sources, none of them cover night time care, leaving the 70-year-old woman with sole responsibility.
Mr Norsworthy added: "She has lived with him in the same home for 22 years and it has been completely adapted.
He said:"She has tried over the years to get night time care for her son and have someone come to assist her but has not been able to achieve it. She used these overpayments to pay for people to come in at night so she could sleep."
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