A greedy daughter who stole £216,000 from her Alzheimer’s suffering mother in order to pamper her two pet dogs in luxury has been jailed for four years.
Care worker Luana Dougherty stole the life savings of her elderly and confused mother Margaret Trimmer as if she were ‘taking candy from a baby’.
‘Uncaring and callous’ Dougherty was caught after she bragged to her son she was going to put a £60,000 deposit on a house and other relatives made enquiries with her mother’s bank.
It emerged she had spent ‘thousands’ on her Staffordshire Bull Terrier-type hounds, furniture, and setting up a dog breeding business. Facebook pictures also showed her enjoying a holiday in India with a male companion.
The 50-year-old had already been given a £125,000 share of Mrs Trimmer’s fortune from the sale of their £370,000 family home after she offered to look after her when she developed symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
But the manipulative mother-of-three exploited both her job and her mother’s mental condition.
She downloaded a banking app onto her mobile phone to access her account, making illicit withdrawals of thousands at a time.
Over one four-day period, she was transferring £20,000 a day into her own account and in all stole £216,000.
Just £10,000 was left in her mother’s account by the time the thefts were discovered.
In a statement to police Dougherty’s sister Sandra Clayton said Mrs Trimmer, who is in her 80s was said to be ‘anxious and distressed’ when told of her daughter’s betrayal.
She said: ‘When mum sold up because she was unable to look after herself we agreed that Luana would look after her as she had worked in the care sector for people with dementia.
‘She had already received her share of £125,000 whilst the remaining money would be held in mum’s bank account. But Luanna was amassing that money selfishly for herself. We now feel so foolish that we trusted her.
‘In fact she started accessing the money almost immediately. She had told us repeatedly that our mother was attending medical appointments. But in the 18 months she lived with her she received no doctors’ appointments or diagnosis.
‘My mother’s money would have provided the best possible care’ for her. But the financial impact has meant we had no choice in a type of care home she would move into.
‘We are reliant on the local authority council to choose that place for her and top up £100 a week for mum’s care.
Mrs Clayton added: ‘Luanna has not asked how she is, where she lives, or offered to pay any money. We have not received any money from her.
‘She had showed no care or concern and had used her for what she could get out of her. She had no regard for the consequences, leaving us to pick up the pieces.’
At Chester Crown Court, Dougherty, from Great Sutton, Ellesmere Port admitted fraud by abuse of position. The hearing was told she would be kept on by her employers at a care agency despite her thieving.
Sentencing, the judge Mr Richard Conley told Dougherty: ‘What causes me immediate concern is that you seem to have an uncaring and callous attitude towards what you did.
‘You were a trusted member of your family and your siblings considered you were the person best placed to look after your mum in her old age as her symptoms of Alzheimer and dementia became progressively more serious. But it is clear their trust was entirely misplaced.
‘You decided to exploit the position you were in and through greed and selfishness you continued to siphon off Mrs Trimmer’s money. It was like taking candy from a baby.
‘It was a cynical exploitation of her and of the trust that she and your sister and wider members of your family placed in you. Day after day, time after time, there were financial transfers running up to £1000s, if not £10,000s, all to be frittered away by you on dogs, drugs, hare brained business ideas, or just profligacy on your behalf.
‘It is clear to me that this was selfishness on an epic scale committed by you, against a person who relied on you and trusted you more than anyone else in the world. I am bound to say, it is staggering for me to learn that someone who defrauded a vulnerable person of their own life savings is still working in the care sector.’
Earlier prosecutor Tom McLoughlin said Mrs Trimmer moved in with her daughter in June 2021 after selling the family home in Farnham, Surrey for £370,000.
In mitigation her counsel Oliver King claimed Dougherty’s ex-boyfriend had ‘pressured’ her into taking the cash.
He added: ‘There is no suggestion that this was planned from the outset. She invited her mum to live with her because she genuinely wanted to care for her. It was not possible for other family members to do that.
‘She was also experienced in caring for vulnerable adults, working for 10 years in the care sector. Her family clearly trusted her. What she went on to do was very out of character for her. She tells me she does feel genuine remorse. She always enjoyed a close relationship with her mum. That is now shattered.’