Carer spared prison for £20k fraud from elderly neighbour

Amanda Henderson has been ordered to pay £3,000 in compensation to the estate of her victim, who was bedbound, blind and suffered from dementia.

Henderson, of Southbourne Grove, Bournemouth, pleaded guilty on a basis to a single charge of fraud by abuse of position and was back before Bournemouth Crown Court on Monday, April 11, after judge Stephen Climie deferred sentence on the offender last year.

The judge told the defendant at a hearing in September that if she made efforts to save money for compensation and stayed out of trouble he would consider a suspended sentence.

At Monday's hearing, the court was told Henderson, aged 50, had saved £1,350 for immediate compensation, surpassing the judge’s expectation.

Judge Climie ordered that she contribute another £1,650 at a rate of £100 a month, alongside a sentence of 20 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.

• Read more: Bournemouth carer stole £20k from extremely vulnerable woman

Amanda Henderson

He told Henderson that she effectively chose to steal from a “highly vulnerable” woman, who had died since the offending took place.

“You did that in a way which was comparatively sophisticated and for a period of time quite well hidden before the family appreciated that money appeared to be light,” said Judge Climie.

Prosecuting, Jonathan Underhill said a standing order payment had been set up in relation to the care support the defendant provided to her then neighbour.

It was not disputed that she did provide some degree of care that had been asked for but the extent to which payment arrangements had been agreed was unclear.

It came to light that she had also been regularly transferring funds from the elderly woman’s bank account into her own account.

The victim’s granddaughter became aware of transactions on her relative’s bank accounted which gave her cause for concern in March 2019. She began to compile mini-statements from the Santander accounts, which brought the offending over almost a two-year period to light.

The court heard a request was made to set up online banking on the account using an email address in the name of the defendant, but this effort was rejected by Santander.

Timothy Compton, representing the defendant, said she still worked at a local BP Garage but the cleaning business she had set up had folded following reporting of her case.

• Read more: Pensioner with no remorse stole £105k from partner who had dementia

Judge Climie said he had taken into account the “unpleasant” domestic experiences Henderson had been through.

He told her that she could be subject to a separate county court judgement over the money that is outstanding to the victim’s estate.

Crown courts are expected to implement financial penalties that can realistically be paid within two years of sentencing.

After handing down the suspended sentence, which included a requirement to complete up to 30 days of rehabilitation activity requirement, the judge warned Henderson that if she breaches the order by committing further imprisonable offences she will almost certainly go behind bars.

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