Daughter stole £77k from her own MUM to splash out on meals and holidays
A cruel daughter who was jailed after plundering £77,000 from her vulnerable 85-year-old mother in a long-running 'grotesque breach of trust' has been ordered to pay £74,447 compensation. But her then boyfriend – her accomplice who gained a criminal benefit of £33,763 - has been told to pay back just £300.
Ex-school nurse Rebecca Walton cynically transferred large sums of money from her mother's account, using the pensioner's cash to buy petrol, meals out and shopping, and spending it on holidays and veterinary bills.
The theft scheme spanned more than two-and-a-half years and initially went undetected because Walton's brother trusted her to use an enduring power of attorney to look after the financial affairs of their mother, who lived in a care home, Hull Crown Court heard. Walton, 56, of Leys Lane, Skipsea, East Yorkshire, admitted two offences of theft against her mother, Margaret Walton, who has since died.
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Walton's then boyfriend, Duncan Lowe, 51, of Swallow Road, Driffield, admitted acquiring criminal property, £33,763 belonging to Walton's mother. At a hearing in September last year, Walton was jailed for two years and Lowe was locked up for one year.
The case has now resurfaced at a proceeds of crime hearing for Lowe when the court was told that a compensation order had previously been adjourned because of inquiries being made over the value of a vehicle that Lowe had owned. Stephen Robinson, prosecuting, said that it had now been confirmed that the vehicle had been written off. Lowe had suffered an accident and the vehicle was of little or no value, reports Hull Live.
"That left a number plate on the vehicle," said Mr