96-year-old targeted by lowlife mother-of-three
Fraudster escapes jail time after plundering thousands from bank
AFRAUDSTER who plundered her 96-year-old neighbour’s bank accounts for thousands and sold jewellery from her dead husband for drugs has been spared jail.
Mother-of-three Kelly Sang cruelly ‘latched onto’ the elderly widow following a fall at home so she could steal more than £3,100 in just seven days, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Sang, 33, of Bloomfield Terrace, Tipton, admitted burglary with intent to steal between October 1 and October 31 last year, and fraud between November 12 and 18 last year.
She was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence for two years. She was also handed a restraining order banning her from contacting her victim.
Dean Easthope, prosecuting, said Sang withdrew cash 35 times after snatching the pensioner’s bank card, opened mobile phone contracts linked to her victim’s address and set up Studio catalogue accounts to make various purchases.
She also stole jewellery the widow wanted to ‘take to her grave’, which had been gifted to her just before her husband died.
Sang, who receives over £1,600 each month in benefits, even tried to convince police the pensioner had dementia and had mistakenly believed her cash was missing.
Mr Easthope said she deliberately targeted the elderly woman when she was not in the best of health following a fall.
She withdrew £1,980 using the stolen bank card and then called Barclays Bank pretending to be the pensioner when the account was blocked.
The fraudster disguised her voice but bank staff refused to unblock the account as she did not sound like a 96-year-old woman.
Her victim only discovered cash was missing after visiting the bank when her card was blocked and was told several cash point withdrawals were made from a newsagents close to her home.
Sang also took out two mobile phone accounts using the widow’s address and opened two Studio catalogue accounts to make transactions
totalling £1,133. Mr Easthope said: “At the start of October 2020, the victim had an accident which resulted in a broken arm, resulting in mobility issues and difficulties in performing day-to-day tasks and activities.
“The defendant was a neighbour and offered help.
“This was initially welcomed by the complainant but as she got stronger, she did not need it. The defendant did not listen.”
Receipts from pawnbrokers revealed Sang sold the pensioner’s jewellery including rings for £110 and a bracelet for £370, the prosecutor added.
Richard Davenport, defending, said Sang felts ‘absolutely disgusted’ that she carried out the ‘most appalling’ offences.
Recorder William Edis QC condemned Sang for her ‘premeditated’ offending which he said would have carried on until the victim’s ‘money ran out’ had she not been caught.
He told her: “You said you had the victim’s consent for everything you did, and you did not and you knew that. You latched on to a neighbour who you knew was in her late nineties, frail, as one would expect at that age, and physically impaired by a series of falls and broken bones.
“You thought she had been abandoned by her family and nobody would notice what you were doing, and that’s why you did it. Having latched on to her, you plundered her accounts and you did that quite deliberately for your own financial benefit.”
Recorder Edis said Sang spent cash on drugs, online gambling and to buy items for herself.