Gran jailed af ter she claimed dead mum’s pension for six years
A GRANDMOTHER who took £33,000 of her mother’s pension for six years after she died will spend Christmas in jail.
Gladys McKenna, 62, continued to take pension payments paid into Jane Love’s bank account after she died in 2010.
She carried on the deception even after being asked to confirm in 2015 if her mother was still alive and returning forms claiming she was.
The following year, when additional paperwork failed to be returned to the pension provider, the payments stopped and were investigated.
After pleading guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to committing the fraud between April 2010 and January 2016, McKenna was sentenced to 14 months behind bars yesterday.
Sheriff Alan MacKenzie said: ‘I recognise it was all too easy given your financial circumstances to drift into this ongoing deception. However, the gravity of what you have pled guilty to is such that no disposal is appropriate other than custody.’
The court heard Mrs Love died on April 2, 2010 and her death was registered.But McKenna continued to withdraw pension payments paid into her mother’s account.
In January 2016, a letter was sent to Mrs Love and McKenna that required to be returned by Mrs Love or a power of attorney.
When the papers were not returned, the payments stopped, an investigation was carried out and the police were subsequently called in.
McKenna, of Nitshill, Glasgow, attended a police station on January 24, 2017, where she gave a nocomment interview.
The court heard the money was ‘absorbed’ into the family household.
Defence lawyer Lindsay McPhee said: ‘She is very remorseful for her actions, ashamed and contrite.’