WHAT THE JUDGE SAID...

JUDGE Gosling told Lovatt the only reason he was not sending her to jail was because of her mother’s plea.

He said: “Your mother was elderly and vulnerable and would have never suspected that her daughter would commit this crime. She had nothing to do with her finances, which is typical of others of her generation and the defendant took full advantage.

“I think this has been carefully planned with considerable cunning. It has had a very significant impact on the victim, with her health and wellbeing seriously affected. The defendant also asked her mother to stop the prosecution. She visited her mother to try to save her own skin, and up to the wire maintained her innocence.”

Looking at her character references, the judge said: “She has been carer for her grandchildren and she is in a fragile mental and physical state, and her marriage is in peril. The sentence would have been 30 months in prison but this would inflict a level of torment on her mother and that lady has suffered enough so I am suspending the sentence for her mother, not for the defendant.”

“This is a despicable crime against your own mother. You come out as devious, dishonest and shameless. Your mother comes out as someone who knows principle, morality and looking after her family. If you needed money she would have given it to you.

“She will never receive peace of mind or have a relationship with you and you only have yourself to blame.”