An investigation by a council’s trading standards team has found former care home bosses guilty of having ‘financially abused’ an elderly resident.
The former bosses of Amberley Care Home were declared guilty of fraud at Wolverhampton Crown Court last Friday, with the prosecution brought by the trading standards team at Dudley Council.
According to the council, the jury found that former care home owners Graham and Lyn Walker, as well as the home’s former manager, Jamiel Slaney-Summers, attempted to seize £175,000 from an elderly resident by creating a fake will.
The case involving resident 85-year-old Rita Barnsley has been identified as ‘one of the biggest recorded convictions for elder fraud in the country’.
Slaney-Summers was also found guilty of theft following an investigation that revealed roughly £6,000 had been stolen from Ms Barnsley through withdrawals from her bank card.
Cllr Phil Atkins, cabinet member responsible for trading standards, said: ‘I welcome the decision of the jury, which brings to an end a long and painstaking investigation by our superb trading standards team to bring these three people to justice.
‘Their intentions were clear – to fleece this poor, vulnerable woman of all the money she had worked her whole life to earn.’
Emphasising the ‘horrific abuse of trust’ by the three guilty parties who ‘financially abused’ Ms Barnsley, Cllr Atkins warned that the council ‘will not tolerate elder abuse’.
