Woman stole £216,000 from her Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother to spend on pet dogs
A woman stole £216,000 from her Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother to spend on cars and her pet dogs, a court heard.
Care worker Luana Dougherty, 50, had offered to look after Margaret Trimer, her mother, after she developed symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
Mrs Trimer’s family home was sold and Dougherty received a £125,000 share from the sale.
But the mother-of-three later downloaded a banking app on to her phone to access her mother’s account to make withdrawals of thousands of pounds, Chester Crown Court heard.
Over a four-day period, she transferred £20,000 a day into her own account, and went on to steal £216,000 in total.
Dougherty was caught after she bragged to her son she was going to put a £60,000 deposit on a house, after which other relatives made inquiries with Mrs Trimmer’s bank.
It emerged Dougherty had spent “thousands” on her Staffordshire bull terrier-type dogs, furniture, and setting up a dog breeding business. Facebook pictures also showed her enjoying a holiday in India with a male companion.
Just £10,000 was left in her mother’s account when the thefts were discovered.
At Chester Crown Court, Dougherty, from Great Sutton, Ellesmere Port, admitted fraud by abuse of position. She was jailed for four years. The hearing was told she would be kept on by her employer at a care agency despite her thieving.
In a statement to police, Sandra Clayton, Dougherty’s sister, said Mrs Trimmer, who is in her 80s, was said to be “anxious and distressed” when told of her daughter’s betrayal.
She said: “When mum sold up because she was unable to look after herself we agreed that Luana would look after her as she had worked in the care sector for people with dementia. She had already received her share of £125,000 whilst the remaining money would be held in mum’s bank account. But Luana was amassing that money selfishly for herself. We now feel so foolish that we trusted her.
“In fact she started accessing the money almost immediately. She had told us repeatedly that our mother was attending medical appointments. But in the 18 months she lived with her she received no doctors’ appointments or diagnosis.
“My mother’s money would have provided the best possible care for her. But the financial impact has meant we had no choice in the type of care home she would move into.
“We are reliant on the local authority council to choose that place for her and top up £100 a week for mum’s care.”
Tom McLoughlin, prosecuting, said Mrs Trimmer moved in with her daughter in June 2021 after selling the family home in Farnham, Surrey for £370,000.
After her family discovered the theft, they confronted Dougherty, Mr McLoughlin said, who “accepted she had taken the money and spent most of it on cars, thousands [of pounds] on dogs, and significant sums on other items”.
The court heard Dougherty later transferred £80,000 back.
In mitigation, her counsel Oliver King claimed Dougherty’s ex-boyfriend had ‘‘pressured’ her into taking the money.
Sentencing, Judge Richard Conley told Dougherty: “What causes me immediate concern is that you seem to have an uncaring and callous attitude towards what you did.”