A woman who stole nearly £90,000 from her poorly grandfather has been ordered to repay just under £2,000.
Madline Shaw, 33, from Borrowby Village, near Thirsk, was jailed for 18 months in November last year after she admitted a fraud spree which netted her tens of thousands of pounds while her ailing granddad’s care-home fees went unpaid.
At that sentence hearing at York Crown Court five months ago, a timetable was set for financial-confiscation proceedings which would determine how much Shaw had to repay into the public purse for her illicit gains.
At a Proceeds of Crime (POCA) hearing at the same court on Friday, March 20, the prosecution said that Shaw’s total “benefit figure” – her total profit from the outrageous scam – was just over £89,930.
However, her “available amount” was just over £1,908. This was the total amount of any funds or assets she still had.
Judge Sean Morris duly made a confiscation order of £1,908.50 which Shaw must pay within three months. She was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £156.
At the sentence hearing in November, prosecutor Brooke Morrison said that Shaw was given power of attorney over her grandfather John Mallaby’s finances after he was taken into a care home following a fall at his home.
Shaw then abused that power to systematically steal from his bank account and strip him of his life savings and pension while he was living at Leeming Garth Care Home in Northallerton.
Mr Mallaby was moved into the care home in August 2019. Three months later, Shaw was given lasting power of attorney to look after his finances after care professionals decided he was no longer capable of making his own financial transactions.
By January 2020, staff were becoming increasingly concerned about Shaw’s handling of Mr Mallaby’s finances and placed restrictions on his bank account.
At this stage, Shaw was given the benefit of the doubt and simply given advice on handling her grandfather’s account.
In November 2020, Mr Mallaby’s account was “freed” again to allow Shaw to continue looking after his finances under power of attorney.
Shaw, who worked as a horse rider and groomer, wasn’t charged with any fraudulence up to that point, but from November 2021 onwards, her grandfather’s account was depleted by £125,227, of which she had invested £53,626 into a property-development scheme, in which she herself was scammed and lost all the money.
Shaw had transferred the rest of the money, some £71,601, from her grandfather’s account into her own and spent it on baby items, pre-school fees, dinner money and a subscription to Fabletics, a bespoke sportswear and footwear brand.
During that time, Mr Mallaby was unable to pay for essentials such as toiletries because his care-home fees weren’t being paid.
Even after Mr Mallaby’s death in September 2021, Shaw was still taking money from his account for her own ends.
Shaw’s mother, who was the executor of Mr Mallaby’s will, checked his finances and realised he was in arrears with his care-home fees, despite having had £100,000 in his account in November 2020 and being in receipt of two regular pension payments.
She contacted police and Shaw was duly arrested and charged with fraud, which she initially denied, only to plead guilty on the day her trial was due to take place.
Shaw’s basis of plea, that she stole £71,601, was accepted by the prosecution before sentence, but the “benefit figure” was upgraded to £89,930 during the POCA proceedings.
Shaw’s barrister Zarreen Alan-Cheetham said that her client, who had been living in a £500,000 house in Borrowby, had been acting in what she thought were her grandfather’s “best interests” when she invested over £53,000 of his money into the property-investment scheme, although “she now understands and accepts that it was not” after losing £100,000 in the scam.
She said that Shaw, a mother-of-two, had worked as a hairdresser and at a hotel until being given power of attorney over her grandfather’s finances.
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