Saturday 5 December 2009

Adding Insult To Injury…

Steal £41,000 from a 95 year old war veteran (and member of your family) and this is how the justice system punishes you:
Hayley Price, 42, of Blaenavon, Torfaen, cooked and cleaned for D-Day veteran Arthur Edwards, while writing herself 154 fraudulent cheques.

She was given a year's jail, suspended for two years, at an earlier hearing at Cardiff Crown Court.
Can you wonder why some people lose all heart?
A proceeds of crime hearing was subsequently told all the money has been spent and Price had no assets.

Judge David Wynn Morgan ruled that Price must repay £5 to Mr Edwards by next week.
Why the £5? So a ‘token’ payment was registered on someone’s database?

It doesn’t seem worthwhile otherwise. In fact, it seems downright contemptuous…
The court was told that during a police interview, she said: "I was greedy and had Christmas coming. I hold my hands up to it. I thought I could get away with it."

The jury heard that all the money was spent on herself, her son and her dog.
And nothing remains? No goods whatsoever?

What did she spend it on, food? Did her, her son and the pooch dine on caviar and lobster every evening?
After the proceeds of crime hearing on Wednesday, Mr Edwards' family said it had been a "very difficult time" for the veteran soldier who now lives in a care home.

His niece Jayne Edwards said: "He will never see his money again and the fact that a member of his own family stole from him is very sad.

"I'm disappointed for my uncle that the system doesn't allow for him to get the money back."
I wonder how much longer before people don’t bother with ‘the system’ at all, and simply resort to other means to get some kind of payback..?

I think this story is hands-on favourite to win 'The Policeman's Blog 'mad judges' competition...

8 comments:

MTG said...

Disgraceful in every respect.

Even lawyers, who have not a shred of decency and class, wait until their clients are quite dead before stealing from estates.

Roue le Jour said...

Hmmn. If he gave her the 41,000 in the last days of his life, it would have been taxed, wouldn't it? So HMRC has an interest here?

Mark Wadsworth said...

That really is adding insult to injury.

manwiddicombe said...

Did she have to pay £15 victim surcharge? There's no mention of it in the BBC article :p

sobers said...

If there were any justice in this country, she would be made to work for the rest of her life to pay it off. The PAYE system could be easily adapted to remove a percentage of her earnings for the rest of her life until she'd paid it off, to the victim, or his heirs.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Roue le Jour.
They have devised a plan to keep the money from the state.
And if he's now in a care home, I suspect that the state would have taken all the money to pay for his care.

YeahRight

JuliaM said...

"Even lawyers, who have not a shred of decency and class, wait until their clients are quite dead before stealing from estates."

Oh, you're gonna have to eat those words now.. ;)

"Did she have to pay £15 victim surcharge?"

Good point! I wonder...

"If there were any justice in this country, she would be made to work for the rest of her life to pay it off. "

I suspect she doesn't work. Possibly never has.

"And if he's now in a care home, I suspect that the state would have taken all the money to pay for his care."

You could be right, though there are perfectly legal ways around that, if you trust your relatives...

MTG said...

This solicitor never let her side down, Julia!

The swindle was reported as having commenced within a few weeks of Mr Carrier's cremation (a major setback to client recovery.)