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Daughter pocketed £20,000 of dad's pension - for more than seven years after his death

A daughter illegally pocketed more than £20,000 from her father's pension - for more than seven years after his death.

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Call centre worker Suzanne Woodhouse did not tell the former employers of Leslie Watson he had passed away and even forged his signature for the payments to go into her bank account rather than his.

The 50-year-old from Pool Lane, Oldbury, was given a suspended prison sentence when she appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Mr Watson died in February 2001 and his daughter admitted using 'some' of the cash from the continuing Unilever Ltd pension before her fraud officially started three years later on June 8, 2004, when she sent the letter purporting to have been written by him requesting the cash be paid directly to her.

This scam continued until June 2011 - and involved at least £21,500 - before being discovered in a spot check by the pension company, revealed Mr Kevin Jones, prosecuting.

Woodhouse, of previous good character, then ignored letters from Unilever but 'knew the game was up. '

Mr Jones continued: "Initially she made denials but as the evidence unfolded she admitted what had happened."

Mr Tim Talbot-Webb, defending, said: "She was living with her parents and looking after them. This included helping her father with his pension.

"Then both her mother and father died in a short time. She grieved and did not sort out the paperwork in a timely manner. At some stage she realised what was happening and did nothing about it. Then she made a positive decision to commit fraud."

He said the defendant 'knew the game was up' from the moment she first heard that Unilever had launched an investigation into the pension payout but had to wait a further four years for the matter to be resolved.

Woodhouse, who lives with her husband in a rented local authority property, had put the pension cash into the 'general household pot' and had not enjoyed an extravagant life style as a result of the crime, added Mr Talbot-Webb.

He added: "She has buried her head in the sand but is now negotiating a repayment plan with Unilever."

Woodhouse admitted fraud and was told by Recorder Mark Rhind: "I find it difficult to reconcile the two images of you presented to me.

"I read how remorseful you are and how you were regarded as trustworthy by friends but on the other hand you wrote a blatantly dishonest letter in the name of your father - a surprising thing for a daughter to do years after their dad had passed away.

"Then you lied to police until presented with unanswerable evidence and since 2011 have not repaid a penny of the money you dishonestly took at a time when your bank account was in credit."

She was given an eight-month jail sentence suspended for a year with 200 hours unpaid work, £300 costs and a night time curfew by the Recorder, who promised to review his decision not to send her to prison immediately if she did not provide prompt proof of her alleged agreement with Unilever for the repayment of the money.

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