Evil carer stole £550k from OAPs
A CROOKED social worker caught buying Rolex watches and “swanning off on holiday” after stealing £550,000 from vulnerable people in her care has been jailed.
Hilary Tideswell, 63, took advantage of one OAP after discovering she did not qualify for council funding as she had £500,000 in savings and owned her own house.
The Bradford Council care worker used her inside knowledge to become 81-yearold Constance Lupton’s power of attorney without the pensioner knowing.
With unrestricted access to
Mrs Lupton’s account,Tideswell began to swiftly spend the cash on luxury foreign holidays and Rolex watches.
Leeds Crown Court heard she even allowed her son Neil Moorhouse, 42, to live in Mrs Lupton’s house rent-free, before selling it when the stolen funds started dwindling.
Tideswell forged another man’s will and obtained probate so she could manage his estate – from which she transferred £27,372 into her account. Her husband David Tideswell, 66, was also arrested but insisted he had no idea the money his wife was spending came from fraudulent activity.
Moorhouse said his mother had ordered him to stay at the house and he didn’t want to argue with her by refusing.
Asked if he thought she was behaving illegally, he admitted she had been “swanning off on holiday a lot”.
When the Office of the Public Guardian began investigating, Tideswell forged notes to try to cover her tracks.
She claimed all the payments were legitimate and insisted that Mrs Lupton had wanted to give her the money.Tideswell pleaded guilty to fraud earlier this year and her husband and son were found guilty of converting criminal property.
Jailing the mum for seven years and nine months, Judge Simon Batiste said: “Your actions were cynical in the extreme, carefully planned, and great efforts were made to hide your criminality.
“These were despicable crimes.Anyone with any shred of humanity would be sickened and repulsed by them.”
Her husband and son received suspended sentences and were ordered to do more than 200 hours of unpaid work.