Carer stole £126k from wealthy widow she met through church
A CARER stole £126,000 from a millionaire widow after befriending her through church and reading the Bible to her.
Tanya Benjamin stole two cheques from frail Margaret Sail before writing them out to herself.
She later claimed they were a gift to pay off her mortgage from the ‘mother I never had’.
Benjamin, 60, was being paid by Mrs Sail to carry out household chores which she described as ‘God’s work’. They had been introduced in the summer of last year after Benjamin met a friend of Mrs Sail’s at church.
The 85-year-old had lived alone in Beeston, Nottingham, since her husband died in 1995 after making a £4million fortune in the furniture business.
A court heard that the women became friendly and, as well as doing chores, Benjamin, a divorced mother of three from Stapleford, Nottingham, would read to Mrs Sail.
But she went on to betray the pensioner’s trust, writing out and cashing cheques to herself totalling more than £126,000. Benjamin denied theft and two counts of fraud by false representation but was found guilty after a trial at Nottingham Crown Court.
The court was told that although she was alert of mind, Mrs Sail had become increasingly infirm and admitted herself to a nursing home during Christmas last year.
As she was admitted, a close friend who helped her manage her affairs spotted that several cheques had been removed from her chequebook with the stubs left blank, which was unlike her. The suspicious friend then decided to monitor Mrs Sail’s bank statements, noticing that in January this year a cheque for the value of £160 had been cashed.
The friend assumed the cheque was written to pay for gardening or maintenance at Mrs Sail’s home.
However, the following month’s statement showed that another of the missing cheques had been used to draw £126,000 from Mrs Sail’s account. Both cheques were payable to Benjamin and both paid into her own account.
Shocked by the amount, the friend immediately contacted Mrs Sail and her solicitor, who told him they had no knowledge of cheques.
Police found that shortly after the cheques had been paid into her
‘Something very strange going on’
account, Benjamin had withdrawn around £60,000 over an eight- day period. Officers who searched Benjamin’s home found £54,000 in cash in a safe box in the kitchen.
A further £63,000 was found in her bank account.
After Benjamin was arrested she claimed that the two cheques were gifts. But a handwriting expert who examined copies of the cheques also concluded they had not been signed by Mrs Sail.
Benjamin, who had been a carer since arriving in Britain from Malta when she was aged 19, told the court she had been left ‘speechless’ when Mrs Sail had handed her the cheque for £126,000. She told officers she had been unaware of Mrs Sail’s wealth and that she had become ‘the mum I never had’.
In her evidence Benjamin told the jury: ‘A lot of my employment has been God’s work and care work’. David Outterside, defending, told the jury Benjamin was not dishonest, but ‘a 60-year-old lady of impeccable character’ and ‘hasn’t put a foot wrong in her life’.
And he told the judge he had just found out that Benjamin had been sleeping in her car with her dogs ‘for goodness knows how long’.
The defendant, who had a mortgage and bank loan together worth £68,000, buried her face in her hands and wept as she was convicted.
Sentencing was adjourned for psychiatric reports to be carried out. Judge Timothy Spencer QC told Benjamin: ‘I am very troubled by you. I think there is something very strange going on, to put it mildly ... These are very serious offences and I am very likely going to send you to prison.’
Judge Spencer went on to say he was considering imposing a restraining order requiring Benjamin to stay away from people aged over 55.