Daughter who stole £180,000 from her parents facing jail

A DAUGHTER stole nearly £180,000 from her parents after they sold their home, put her in charge of their finances and set off on a trip around Europe in a motorhome.

Elizabeth and Terence Fordham only realised something was up when they were unable to withdraw any money from the bank.

They cut their trips short and returned home to find Melissa Humphreys, 33, their daughter, had spent all their funds and even applied for new cards in their names, Chelmsford Crown

Court heard. Humphreys, right, from Colchester, Essex, admitted 12 counts of credit card fraud and one count of obtaining property by deception. Barry Hargreaves, prosecuting, said the retired couple had sold their property in 2006 to go travelling. “They discovered in 2010 things going wrong, they couldn’t get money out. The accounts had no money in them. Credit cards were maxed out and they had to borrow money from a relative to get back to the UK. Their dreams have been shattered by these offences. They have been left in a dreadful financial position.” Steven Levy, mitigating, called for an eight-week adjournment for a psychiatric report and said the case “has had a big impact on her and her mental health”. Bailing her for sentencing, Judge Emma Peters told Humphreys: “Given the breach of trust here and the extended period of dishonesty, and the terrible fact that her victims were her parents, is clearly an aggravating factor in my view. I don’t want you to be under any doubt at all that the most immediate sentence will be custody.”