Shame of Peach the leech
Good to see more offences added this week to the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme, which allows anyone to request a review of the punishment handed down by a judge if they think it’s too soft.
But it’s a shame the scheme wasn’t expanded to include victims of commonplace frauds – at the moment it only includes “serious fraud” which usually means £500,000 or more.
The family of 90-year-old Ella McIvor certainly believe the penalty given to care worker Sophie Peach was too lenient.
She stole £25,000 from Ella after obtaining her debit card and PIN, spending the money on a honeymoon and foreign holidays.
Peach, 45, who admitted fraud, walked free from Perth Sheriff Court last week, getting away with 300 Peach walked free from court hours of unpaid work. Peach did repay the money after being caught, but not before Ella’s health dramatically deteriorated.
She has since died. “Ella’s personality changed from being mentally confident to ending up a very insecure and fragile person, and she kind of gave up on life,” her niece Fiona Gourlay told the Daily Record after the hearing.
“The sentence wasn’t severe enough – she should have gone to jail.”
Dr John Beer, chairman of Action on Elder Abuse, welcomed the new offences that have been added to the scheme but said: “The omission of fraud and theft offences will be disappointing to older victims of financial abuse, many of whom are deliberately targeted as a result of their perceived vulnerability.”
Ella became very fragile and she kind of gave up on life