Lying Brierley Hill care home manager jailed for fiddling will of 85-year-old resident in £130k fraud
The former manager of a Brierley Hill care home where a dying resident's will was forged and money stolen from her bank account has been jailed for her crimes.
Jamiel Slaney-Summers, aged 65, and co-owners Lyn and Graham Walker, aged 71 and 74, were previously found guilty of abusing their position by defrauding resident Rita Barnsley after the 85-year-old's will was changed before she died in August 2021, resulting in her £178,000 estate being defrauded.
Slaney-Summers was also found guilty of stealing £6,000 from the victim, who was living at Amberley Care Home in Brierley Hill, by using her bank cards to withdraw cash.
Sentencing Slaney-Summers at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday Judge John Butterfield KC said the former care home manager had told "lies" in a vain bid to cover her tracks after a cousin of the victim "smelt a rat" and raised concerns about exactly what was happening to Ms Barnsley when they had difficulties contacting her.
Judge Butterfield said: "It is no coincidence that the defendant left her employment. She sanctimoniously dressed up her true motivation.
"There is no avoiding the disturbing extent to which lies dripped from your tongue."
The judge said the defendant went out of her way to befriend the vulnerable victim by dropping by her room on a daily basis to talk to her after she came to the belief that the victim was "well off", and proceeded to "groom and isolate" her.
"The victim was particularly vulnerable with failing eyesight and when the false will was created she was frail. You exploited that."
The court heard that the loss to the pensioner's estate was £133,500 and that Slaney-Summers, of Raven Hays Road, Northfield, and the home's owners Graham and Lyn Walker, of Cradley, sought to carve up the will by taking 75 per cent and awarding Ms Barnsley's relative 25 per cent as "hush money" to save their skins.
In mitigation, the court heard that the defendant, who had denied any wrongdoing, was now her husband's carer and that sending her to prison would cause problems for the family.
The three defendants tried to get the lion's share of the £178,000 estate made up of the value her £150,000 house and £28,000 in savings by drawing up a false will and then in some way persuading two other staff members to sign the document. But the action raised alarm bells with the victim's elderly cousin Verna Woodley who reported them to Dudley Council's Trading Standards team and the care watchdog the Care Quality Commission.
By then Slaney-Summers had plundered sums from the bank account before Ms Barnsley's death in August 2021 to fund games of online bingo.
However, in front of a packed public gallery the judge jailed her for a total of five and a half years for fraud and theft. She must serve at least half of the term before being considered for release on licence.
A number of jury members who tried the case in October also returned for the sentencing.
Co-defendants Lyn Walker and Graham Walker, both of Ribbesford Close, Cradley, will be sentenced together at a later date after the court heard that Graham Walker had taken ill and was taken to A&E on Thursday.
The prosecution was brought by Dudley Council and the judge praised family, the case workers and prosecutor Mark Jackson for their tenacity in the matter.