How Brierley Hill care home bosses almost succeeded in swindling vulnerable pensioner by isolating her and convincing her to sign away fortune

Rita saw it as temporary stopgap until she could move back home, which she never did. How could she know the smiling bosses of her new care home had no intention of letting her return to her creature comforts but also planned on becoming the major benefactors of her entire estate?

Firstly, they set about isolating Rita from friends and family. When her cousin Verna phoned, as she had regularly for seven decades, staff at the home would come up with various excuses why she could not be connected.

Rita was now reliant on staff at the home, especially manager Jamiel Slaney-Summers who she would entrust with her cashpoint cards and pin numbers. Rita had been diligent with her finances all her life only for Slaney-Summers to plunder her savings to fund her online bingo betting habit.

Slaney-Summers and the owners of the home during the fraud, Lyn and Graham Walker, almost got away with getting the lion's share of Rita's £195,000 estate. However, glaring errors in the fraudulent will document and changes to Rita's planned funeral arrangements alerted an elderly relative.

On Friday (October 24) former manager Slaney-Summers and the Walkers, the home's owners at the time of Rita's death in August 2021, were found guilty of abusing their position to defraud Rita.

Slaney-Summers was also found guilty of theft concerning the £6,000 cashpoint withdrawals.

The jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court took less than two hours to find the trio guilty of all charges.

The crudely drawn up will which had paragraphs in different colour ink and differing handwriting was at the centre of the case. Rita was told she needed to draw up a will or the Government would get her entire estate; Slaney-Summers and Lyn Walker were the executors.

The new will would give Slaney-Summers 50 per cent of the estate, Lyn Walker 25 per cent and £5,000 in gifts to various staff members, which is against CQC regulations.

This did not stop a delighted Slaney-Summers waving the document around after Rita signed it. The childless homeowner whose health was ailing was ripe for defrauding.

The Walkers and their manager knew Rita owned a house outright in Brierley Hill and had more than £20,000 in savings which meant her estate was worth north of £195,000. The greedy trio almost walked away with the lion's share of Rita's estate but they had not bargained for Verna Woodley, Rita's cousin.

Despite being agoraphobic and living in Stoke-on-Trent the 86-year-old Verna was the prosecution's star witness during the trial. They chatted regularly on the phone for decades but soon after Rita moved to Amberley Care Home Verna could not contact her with staff giving a variety of excuses why Rita was unavailable.

The new will only came to light after Rita's death in August 2021. Verna was shocked Slaney-Summers changed Rita's funeral arrangements, choosing the cheap option of cremation in Perry Barr.

Verna said: "Rita would never have wanted to be cremated in Perry Barr as she always talked about wanting her funeral to be in Gornal."

Whoever penned the fraudulent will made a simple mistake which ignored the deep feelings the two Black Country women had for each other.

When Verna saw the phrase "adopted cousin" she knew Rita would not have written that. They had been cousins since they were little girls in the 1950s, and Verna said: "There is no way Rita would refer to me as adopted. She did not care I was adopted. We loved each other."

Verna acted on her gut feeling those running the care home had taken advantage of Rita in the months before her death in August 2021.

She said: "I phoned the Care Quality Commission, Dudley Council, Safeguarding and anyone who would listen that my cousin Rita did not write that will."

When the authorities started asking questions Lyn, 71, and Graham, 74, and Slaney-Summers changed their tune. Where previously Graham had been telling staff Rita did not like Verna and phoned solicitors asking how quickly the house could be sold, a call which had been recorded was played to the jury.

A letter in his name to the CQC blamed his manager and staff for the fraudulent will. During the trial, Mr Walker repeatedly claimed he had no idea about the will or its contents.

Executors Slaney-Summers and Lyn Walker began blaming each other for drawing up the will. Slaney-Summers was caught on CCTV footage removing black bags believed to be full of financial papers from Rita's room to her car.

The Walkers went on a cruise, to a destination where there "was no phone signal" and Slaney-Summers left the home, never to return.

During the trial accusations were flung back and forth as well as a litany of excuses and lies. Graham claimed he could not work the Amberley Care Home computer which someone had used to search 'fraudulent wills'.

Prosecuting, Mark Jackson said: "You say you cannot use the computer so could not have done the search about fraudulent wills, but you used the same computer to search the prices of classic cars you wanted to buy, what is the difference?"

Slaney-Summers meanwhile denied being the will's author because 'she could not write at that time because of a medical condition'.

The 65-year-old, from Raven Hays Road, Northfield, almost derailed the entire trial through her repeated absences from the dock. The last straw for Judge John Butterfield KC was a WhatsApp message informing the court "she would not be coming in'" and he issued a bench warrant which led to her arrest.

Judge Butterfield grew increasingly impatient, telling the jury the trial "was dying a death by a thousand cuts". He eventually withdrew Slaney-Summers's bail so she spent her nights at Foston Hall Women's Prison.

The case was pursued by Dudley Council. Mr Jackson told the jury: "Make no mistake, they all knew what they did."

Slaney-Summers and the Walkers, both of Ribbesford Close, Cradley, will be sentenced in December. All three were given bail.