Fraudster tried to burn her sister alive twice to cover up theft of £140k
A MOTHER of two tried to burn her older sister alive twice to cover up the theft of nearly £140,000.
Catherine Bartlett, 30, caused two house fires in a ‘ruthless and breathtaking’ bid to hide her crimes from her sister Rachael and their family.
Bartlett, who had become hooked on living a high life she could not afford, was branded ‘evil’ and ‘callous’ by a judge as she was jailed for 25 years.
A fantasist, she plundered thousands of pounds of her sister’s money to pay for gifts for her lover, staying in expensive hotels and football tickets in an attempt to ‘buy friends’.
However, when Rachael began to ‘smell a rat’, Bartlett tried to burn her alive.
She gave her sister sleeping tablets and alcohol on the night of the second arson attack, and even removed batteries from the smoke alarm in the hope she would never wake up.
In the end, Rachael managed to scramble
‘She has ripped our family apart’
out of a skylight window in the roof but fell on to the concrete patio below, knocking herself unconscious, before being taken to hospital.
A four-week trial heard 34-year-old Rachael offered Bartlett the job of financial manager at her company NurtureItGlobal, which she set up in 2014.
Rachael said she had been left ‘heartbro- ken’, describing her as ‘not only my sister but my best friend’. She added: ‘I trusted her and relied on her and what she has done has ripped our family apart and had a huge effect on us.
‘The fact that she was then prepared to kill me to cover up her actions is so disturbing and I have still not been able to come to terms with it.’
Bartlett stole more than £96,000 from her sister and £43,000 from their father, Michael. But Rachael told how she had been isolated by her family.
Their father refused to make a complaint against her sister for stealing from him and she said she felt their parents blamed her for supporting the prosecution.
Kate Lewis, prosecuting, said Bartlett made the first of two failed attempts to kill her sister when she set fire to a mobile home where her sister had been living.
All of Rachael’s business accounts were destroyed but she was saved by her dog Jade waking her up. The 14-year-old pet tragically perished in the blaze. A month later, Bartlett set fire to their mother’s house in Bartley, Hampshire, as Rachael slept upstairs, after pouring petrol on the staircase.
The next day police and fire brigade search teams found the discarded petrol can in the outside bin and a discarded battery from the smoke alarm – all with Bartlett’s finger prints on them.
Winchester Crown Court heard Bartlett was forced into a situation where she had to act because Rachael had requested to see accountants and bank managers over the state of her finances.
She was buying between 20 and 30 tickets a game for Southampton football matches, telling guests they ‘don’t pay anything because I get them for free’.
In total she splashed out £20,606 of her sister’s money on Southampton FC hospitality and £2,040 on four tickets for an Arsenal game for her lover Julian Lane so he could take his son. Bartlett also withdrew and made transactions totalling £67,790.80.
The court heard Rachael had trusted Bartlett with her debit card, credit card and pin number, and had no access to her bank statements which were managed online by Bartlett.
She tried to blame Rachael for setting the house on fire but jurors rejected her claims, as well as her story that her sister gave her a ‘carte blanche’ with her money. They convicted Bartlett of attempted murder, as well as ten counts of fraud against her sister. She was also convicted of a further count of fraud against her father.
During sentencing, Judge Jane Miller described Bartlett’s behaviour as ‘inexplicable’ and branded her ‘cunning, calculating, and devious’.
She added: ‘We heard a breathtaking history of your wholesale dishonesty and you attempt to cover up your spending.
‘You told lie upon lie, mounting dishonesty upon dishonesty and you were completely dishonest and unprincipled.’
Referring to the subsequent family split, Judge Miller added: ‘I feel very sorry for your parents in their awful situation. They have been supporting the wrong daughter, it’s Rachael that deserves their compassion and not you.
‘I hope they will regret their behaviour towards Rachael and she has the generosity to forgive them.’
‘Wholesale dishonesty’