GHOUL ROBBED GRIEVING STEPDAD OF £8,000
Ron Moore
A twisted ghoul robbed his grieving stepdad of almost £ 8,000 only weeks after snubbing his own mother’s funeral.
Crook Richard Kennedy, 44, emptied frail stroke victim Alexander Moore’s bank account by withdrawing cash from ATMs and Post Office branches using the
87-year-old’s bank card.
Paisley Sheriff Court heard Kennedy’s stealing spree began shortly after he refused to attend his own mother Hughna’s funeral in November last year, because he had fallen out with this stepdad, and his sister Elsie Kennedy, 43, over the family’s arrangements.
Instead, he hatched a plan to use Mr Moore’s Post Office bank card to visit machines in the town’s Silk Street, Broomlands Street, Paisley Road West in Glasgow, as well as Post Office branches, to withdraw £7,700 between November 21, 2017 and January 13 this year.
The brazen liar, who even worked as his mother’s carer prior to her death, tried to blame Mr Moore’s fading memory for the theft, claiming the card had been blocked over “fraud alerts” because the pensioner had been withdrawing so much money.
Jobless Kennedy told Procurator Fiscal Depute Saud Hassan: “He kept taking so much money out with it until it got blocked.”
The fiscal asked Kennedy if he had made a number of withdrawals from his stepdad’s bank account and had been given the PIN number.
The accused replied: “The account was frozen. Mr Moore asked me to check the account to see if he had been receiving all his benefits. The nearest post office to his house was more than a mile away and he would never manage it in his condition.
“He gave me the card to check to see if it had been unfrozen.”
Mr Hassan asked why he had withdrawn numerous sums, as well as £600 from Mr Moore’s bank on one day, and what he had done with all the cash.
Dad- of- three Kennedy, of Gleddoch Road, Penilee, replied: “I have a safe in my house. The money was kept in my safe. I know he was struggling to pay for mum’s funeral.
“He is very old fashioned. It is hard to get stuff out of him.”
The fiscal asked Kennedy why he hadn’t attended his own mum’s funeral.
The accused replied: “I didn’t agree with the arrangements. It was the way it was done. The place they [his sister Elsie and Mr Moore] booked for her wake was a place she would never have entered.
“It was very strange standing in my stepdad’s house, with my eight-year-old daughter, and seeing my mum’s casket for a Humanist ceremony.”
However, Mr Moore, of the town’s Barrhead Road, who is recovering from a stroke and walks with the aid of a stick, came to court to help expose his stepson’s deceit.
Defence agent James Arrol asked the witness why he had given his Kennedy his bank card. He replied: “My money had stopped. Richard said he would try the post office to see what happened. I gave him the card and PIN number.”
Mr Arrol asked the witness: “You asked Richard to return, to go back to the bank and withdraw money, doing that on many occasions?”
Mr Moore strongly denied this telling the court: “No, no, no.”
The witness added the only reason he gave his bank card and PIN number to Kennedy was because “he asked for it”.
Mr Arrol also asked the pensioner if he “bore a grudge” against his stepson for not attending his wife’s funeral, which the witness also denied.
Fiscal Mr Hassan asked witness Elsie Kennedy, a support worker, of Ben More Drive in the town, if her stepdad had a grudge against her brother.
She told the court: “No. My dad would have given him anything. But, anyway, why would he ask a pensioner who has just buried his wife and has still to pay for her funeral, for money?”
She added the family was “disappointed” that Kennedy snubbed their mum’s funeral, but none of them carry a grudge against him.
Fiscal Mr Hassan asked the court to find Kennedy guilty of theft, adding that it was a cunning plan, a web of lies and deceit,which forced the 87-year-old victim to come to court to undo his stepson’s lies.
He added: “The accused accepts it was he who withdrew the amounts on the dates libelled ... but he accepts he doesn’t know where the money ended up?
“I would fathom the money ended up in the accused’s pocket.”
Defence agent Mr Arrol asked the court to acquit his client because the Crown hadn’t proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
However, Sheriff David Pender found Kennedy guilty after the oneday trial, telling him: “The crucial part is he does not have the money. I accept that evidence and find you guilty of theft.”
The Express recently revealed former clerical worker Kennedy embezzled almost £ 5,000 from Renfrewshire Council.
Kennedy abused his job to access online purchasing on behalf of the council’s human resources department.
Between May 2014, and February 2015, he used a card to purchase mainly electrical goods, including televisions and mobile phones, from Amazon and had them delivered to his own home.
He was conv i c t e d o f embezzlement and handed an 18-month Community Payback Order, requiring him to complete 200 hours of unpaid work in a 15- month period and repay £3,500 to the local authority via a Compensation Order.
Sheriff Pender adjourned matters for background reports and released Kennedy on bail.
He returns to court for sentencing on July 18.