Pensioner stole £57k from pal with dementia
She abused her power of attorney
A FORMER nurse used her power of attorney to plunder her friend’s life savings while she was suffering from dementia.
Margaret Rigby spent widower Barbara Lewis’s cash on a string of items including flights, a car, a caravan, meals out and tickets to see Take That.
Splashing out almost £60,000 of her friend’s £235,000 nest egg, she also bought gifts for her daughter and son-in-law, cleared her credit card bills, paid for her weekly shopping – and even a chicken coop.
A court heard that 80-year- old Rigby’s reputation as a ‘pillar of the community’ had been ruined after fleecing her friend of 40 years. She felt a sense of entitlement towards the money because of the years she spent helping Mrs Lewis before she died in 2011 aged in her late 80s, the court was told.
But when she appeared at Canterbury Crown Court for sentencing this week, former Samaritans and Victim Support volunteer Rigby avoided jail. Handing her a two-year prison term suspended for 18 months, recorder Deborah Charles told the charity stalwart: ‘On the one hand you showed great kindness to your friend, on the other you seemed to think the time and energy that you were putting in somehow entitled you to some benefit.
‘You deluded yourself. You abused the trust of a lifelong friend. She is the true victim here. At least she isn’t here to witness what you did.’ She added: ‘If you were ten years younger and fitter I would have sent you straight to prison. I’m just persuaded that you should avoid doing so.’
Rigby, of Betteshanger, Kent, was found guilty in October of fraudulently obtaining around £57,000 between 2007 and 2011 by abuse of position.
Power of attorney was granted in 2003, enabling Rigby to take control of Mrs Lewis’ £235,000 life savings despite concerns from her son. The money was spent on flights to the
‘Not a significant
punishment’
US, a £3,000 car, a £3,000 caravan, a £500 chicken house and a £500 coffee machine. The cash was also used for outings, vets’ bills and an £800 cooker.
Rigby’s daughter, former NHS manager Jane MacDonald, 56, was found guilty of two counts of acquiring criminal property and was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
Her 60-year-old son-in-law Allan MacDonald – a former policeman – was found guilty of one count and received a suspended sentence of 12 months. The court was told the three defendants were ‘intelligent people but ... behaved in a wholly dishonest way’.
Speaking after the verdict, Mrs Lewis’s son Nick said: ‘These weren’t naive, unintelligent people. They knew what they were doing.
‘Are they going to pay any of the money back? They showed no remorse so why are they going to pay me anything? They don’t care. Tomorrow they are going to have forgotten about it.’
Saying he was ‘ disappointed’ by the sentences, he added: ‘ To give three suspended sentences means all three of them go home tonight and their lives aren’t changed.
‘There hasn’t been a significant punishment for them. Their lives aren’t changed, they spent my mother’s money, they have shown no remorse and they have got away with it.’