Daughter used £100k ‘plundered’ from dementia-stricken mum to fund lavish lifestyle
By the time she died in June, Patricia Bancroft’s savings account had just £1.55 in it - down from £90,000
A SCHEMING daughter who plundered her 84-year-old mum’s life savings was jailed for three years.
Susan Hayes, 54, used her position as lasting power of attorney to help herself to the contents of her mum’s bank accounts.
By the time she died in June, Patricia Bancroft’s savings account - which once contained £90,000 - had just £1.55 in it. Patricia died in June this year aged 84.
Hayes also used her mum’s £1,700 monthly pension and benefits payments to fund her own lifestyle.
Hayes, of Preston, Lancs, admitted fraud by abuse of position.
Preston Crown Court heard yesterday Hayes was given legal permission to manage her mum’s bank accounts when Mrs Bancroft was diagnosed with vascular dementia in September 2011.
By January 2013 her condition had deteriorated to the extent Hayes took over the running of her finances.
Hayes and her husband moved into Mrs Bancroft’s home, where they lived rent free, while Mrs Bancroft was cared for at a residential home.
But by May 2014, Mrs Bancroft’s care fees were £28,000 in arrears.
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In July Hayes admitted to the local authority she had misappropriated some of her mum’s money and asked how she could hand back control of the money.
But no further action was taken and it later emerged £190,000 had been taken from Mrs Bancroft’s accounts.
Judge Robert Altham, sentencing, said: “Your mother had three bank accounts and quite simply, you plundered them.
“You used them as a personal resource.”
Hayes pleaded guilty on the basis only £100,000 of the money had been taken dishonestly.
Judge Altham said: “Of course it is right that some of the money was spent on your mother and that is why the crown has accepted the lower figure but there was no gradual erring of the lines.
“This was deliberate, flagrant and persistent.
“We know very little of what happened to the money save to say it has all gone.
“Some went on daily living expenses - they were expenses beyond your means.
“Some was used to discharge your husband’s debt.
“You chose to take advantage of someone you were supposed to provide protection for and you stole from her.
“You do not appear to be truly remorseful - you accept culpability with reluctance and to minimise what you have done.”
He jailed Hayes for three years and set out a timetable for proceeds of crime procedures.