Pensioner who stole father’s life savings told to repay £7,000
A PENSIONER who stole £7,000 of her father’s life savings intended to pay for the care of her sick mother has agreed to pay it all back.
Patricia Freer, aged 65, took the money from her 86-year-old father’s safe in July, which he had set aside to pay for his wife’s care at a nursing home where she had been admitted to suffering from vascular dementia.
Freer pleaded guilty to theft earlier this year and was given three weeks to show remorse by making part payment to reimburse her father by £1,000.
Northampton Crown Court heard the money had also been intended to pay for alterations to his property in the hope his wife would be able to return home. However, Freer stole the money from her father, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and used it to buy back jewellery from a pawnbrokers.
Rebecca Wade, prosecuting, said that when Freer’s elderly father phoned her about the missing money, she admitted taking it. She added: “For a long period from July to October, the complainant was not sure he wanted to proceed with a prosecution and she said she would pay the money back. On two occasions, he was given cheques which bounced.”
Freer arranged for a £1,000 cheque to be handed into court to start repaying the money, and also offered £100 a month from her pension to repay the remainder, which will take five years. The court heard her father has forgiven her and wrote a letter of support to Judge Richard Bray.
Freer, of Deal Court, The Mounts, Northampton was sentenced to a 12-month community order, with supervision, 120 hours’ unpaid work and ordered to pay £7,000 total compensation.
Judge Bray, who previously said the case resembled a tale by Charles Dickens, said: “I have to sentence you for the meanest of thefts. You stole from your father aged 86 who was saving the money to provide for your father who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. When your father asked for the money back, you broke your promise to repay. I bear in mind all the information put before me including a letter from your father who has forgiven you and spoken up for you to the court despite everything you have done to him..”
Caroline Bray, mitigating, said: “She has no money, This went on debts. She sold her jewellery to get this £1,000 and she does not strike you as a woman of means which probably led to her committing this offence after a life of looking after others.
“I hope she has demonstrated that she really is remorseful. She feels wretched about this.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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