Care patient defrauded

A caretaker in Nottinghamshire, England, was jailed for six years after stealing ￡125,000 ($165,000) from an elderly man she was looking after to fund holidays and online gambling.

she completely drained his life savings over a period of less than two years

Anne Hill, 57, gained power of attorney over Louis Woodward, who is in his eighties. After accessing his bank accounts, she completely drained his life savings over a period of less than two years between August 2019 and April 2021.

Woodward was left with nothing remaining from his life savings, and was actually overdrawn when Hill was arrested in April 2021.

Hill had also used the power of attorney to take three drawdowns from a mortgage held by Woodward and secured against his home which totaled over ￡93,000 ($123,000). The money was then transferred to Hill’s own account.

Suspicions raised

Suspicions against Hill were first raised by one of Woodward’s friends, which eventually led to her 2021 arrest.

Hill had insisted that Woodward had given her permission to transfer the money to pay his bills, and also claimed that he had gifted her ￡60,000 ($79,320).

However, jurors heard information to the contrary from Woodward, giving a video interview before his death at the age of 86. He insisted that Hill only had permission to use money for his own benefit and that he had not gifted her the ￡60,000.

Hill blew over ￡108,251.91 ($143,345) gambling online

The court heard that over the two-year period of theft, the long-term gambler Hill blew over ￡108,252 ($143,345) gambling online across more than 17,000 transactions.?

She had also booked a two-week family vacation in Turkey costing over ￡7,000 ($9,300), although this was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hill sentenced

Hill denied any wrongdoing at the trial, but was found guilty of five counts of fraud and one count of perverting the course of justice.

On passing the sentence, Judge Mark Watson said: “This was a betrayal of the very significant trust placed in you. You deliberately targeted him because of his vulnerabilities.”

“You took what you wanted, when you wanted it, stripping him of his life savings and then trying to take even more.”

Detective Sergeant Daniel Weaver, who led the criminal investigation into Hill’s activities, also spoke of the additional victims who had suffered, saying: “The other victims in this case are the beneficiaries of Mr Woodward’s will – the animal charities and long-standing friends he had chosen to support after his death.”

“We will now look to use the Proceeds of Crime Act to recover available funds from Anne Hill, so that his final wishes can be fulfilled as far as possible.”