Granny robber twins dodge prison
No order imposed on sisters to repay the stolen money
TWIN sisters who nicked £8000 from their granny have been spared jail.
The ruling on Clair and Louise Smith, 25, has been branded a “slap in the face” by angry relatives.
THE furious family of thieving twins who stole their own grandparents’ life savings have hit out after they avoided jail – and dodged an order to pay back the money.
Heartless Clair and Louise Smith, 25, posed as doting carers while swiping £8000 from their grandparents’ bank account.
The twins pled guilty to taking the cash while running errands for vulnerable Crawford Pirrie, 73, and wife Marlene, 75.
Yesterday, the pair were sentenced to a three-month tagging order – branded a “slap in the face” by disgusted relatives – and avoided a compensation order.
They held hands and sobbed in the dock as they learned they were being spared prison at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.
Crawford’s daughter Lyndsey Brown said: “This means absolutely nothing. Even without the pandemic, the twins don’t work, so they are always in the house anyway. What kind of punishment is that?
“The sheriff should have sent them to jail. That was the only appropriate punishment for what they’ve done given the nature of this crime.
“That judge had a duty towards my parents and he failed them. He might as well have walked up to them and slapped them in the face. Where is the justice?”
Sheriff George Jamieson imposed an order which will see the twins fitted with an electronic tag and having to abide by a 7pm to 7am curfew for the next three months.
They will not be forced to pay back a penny of the money stolen, as no compensation order was imposed.
Sheriff Jamieson told them: “You do both appear to be genuinely remorseful.”
Refusing an official payback order, he told the pair: “That is going to be up to you.”
Lyndsey, 41, said her parents’ bank has refused to compensate the couple for the theft because they trusted the twins with their account details.
She added: “The message the sheriff has sent today is that my parents don’t matter.
“He has basically let the twins away with it and should be ashamed of himself.
“Clair and Louise have faced no consequence whatsoever regarding this case.
“My parents are the ones who are vulnerable, not them. They will never get over this. It’s going to break their hearts.”
Lyndsey told how the twins offered to help her look after Crawford, who had suffered a stroke, and her step-mum Marlene soon after they sold their home in 2018.
They were occasionally asked to withdraw small sums of money and pick up groceries from the shop for them.
But when Lyndsey’s husband went to the cash machine for the couple and asked for a receipt, he found a huge portion of their savings had vanished. The bank revealed scores of
highhigh-value transactions and the twins were questioned and charged. They pled not guilty in January before admitting the offence just days before trial in October.
Both admitted using a “bank card belonging to another” to “steal money” from cash machines in Irvine and the Ayrshire town’s Girdle Toll area on various occasions between September and October 2018.
Procurator fiscal depute Jaide Podlesny said: “They were given the card by their gran to go shopping and have used the card for themselves, to a value amounting to £8000.”
Defence solicitor advocate Simon Brown, representing Louise, said: “She is in a position to pay £100 a month towards the sum total. I’m fairly certain to say she will never be in trouble again.”
Defence solicitor advocate Sandy Currie said Clair was “thoroughly ashamed” of having committed “a gigantic breach of trust” and was also offering to pay the compensation.