Crook's boyfriend told to sell £22k Porsche funded by theft
The boyfriend of a nursing home manager who fleeced a vulnerable care assistant out of his near £95,000 inheritance has been forced to sell his Porsche.
Steven Wedge, the 49-year-old bankrupt partner of Jayne Whitehouse, was bought the £29,995 Porsche 911 Carrera by her with the stolen money.
Whitehouse, aged 51, was jailed for a year and eight months after pleading guilty to stealing £93,374 from the 45-year-old care assistant she worked with at Tipton's Princess Lodge nursing home.
Wedge was jailed for two years in October for converting criminal property.
At a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court this week, he claimed he did not know the money was stolen when his partner bought the car.
Wedge, formerly of Meredith Road, Wednesfield, was given three months to sell the car, with the remaining money in his bank account to be seized to cover the costs of the prosecution.
Recorder Sam Mainds ordered that all of Wedge's assets – totalling £41,981 – be seized, issuing a confiscation order that would act as compensation for the victim, known as Mr Johns.
During the hearing, Recorder Mainds asked Wedge why he withdrew £10,000 from his bank account the day after he was told he was going to prison.
Wedge told the court his partner had told him to and added: "I thought I wouldn't be able to withdraw anything but I could."
Recorder Mainds then asked Wedge: "Do you accept that your benefit from the offences for which you are now serving total £30,843.92, and that your realisable assets of around £2,000 in Natwest bank, along with the £10,000 you withdrew from the bank, totals £41,981?" Wedge replied "Yes."
Speaking in court this week, he said: "I have worked very hard all my life. Prior to this I have worked as a mechanical engineer earning about £200,000 a year.
"I went to jail because Jayne said she had earned the money but I didn't know she had stolen it."
The court heard how two separate valuations had been carried out on the Porsche by Alison Burrows, financial investigator with West Midlands Police, but that she was unable to ascertain an accurate mileage figure.
Recorder Mainds said the valuation made by the defendant on the basis of the 10-year-old Porsche having around 82,000 miles on the clock was acceptable.
Recorder Mainds said: "I accept the defendant's valuation of £21,840 for the car. He has to sell this vehicle for the highest possible amount, or if this cannot be reached, come back to court."
Wedge said: "I'll do my damnedest to get all the money I can for the car, but if I can't get the amount, I can't give it."
The court also heard that the personalised number plate on the vehicle, which Wedge claimed was his 18-year-old daughter Keeley's, would not be seized.
Wedge said he was using the plate, which he purchased from the DVLA in September 2007, because his daughter did not have a car.
Miss Burrows told the court she was awaiting an order to stop withdrawals from Wedge's bank account when he took out the £10,000.
She said: "Because it takes a few days to process, by the time we got the order, the money had been withdrawn." Recorder Mainds accepted that Wedge had £10,000 in hidden assets.
Philip Brunt, prosecuting said: "The benefits of Mr Wedge's criminality was the buying of the car.
"The £10,000, though the origin may be lawful, was in his bank account.
"The realisable amount could therefore come from legitimate sources but can still be confiscated by the court."
Wedge claimed that the £10,000 had only gone into his account because Miss Whitehouse did not own a bank account and needed somewhere to put the money.
"She always had the card," he said. "She told me to withdraw the money, which I did, and give it to her."
Whitehouse's care assistant victim, who has mild learning difficulties, inherited £94,875 in a lump sum from the
pension of his Shropshire County Council employee brother, who died on March 18, 2013.
Whitehouse learned of the entitlement and persuaded him to take possession of the money, providing monthly payments to him.
The victim realised he had been ripped off when she repeatedly broke the agreement to pay his monthly allowance and revealed what had happened to her deputy while Whitehouse was off work in late August 2013.
After the victim had realised he had been ripped off, the pair were arrested.
