Jail for woman who blew cash stolen from dad on luxuries

A daughter swiped £90,000 from her sick father to spent on lingerie, luxurious hotels and jewellery, including thousands in Pandora.

A judge told Fiona Dorman: “Funds he needed, money he no doubt worked hard for to save, and it was all the more bitter for him that the thief was his own daughter.”

The 37-year-old was this week jailed at Canterbury Crown Court for two years and seven months, as dad Alan’s finances suffered a “catastrophic” blow.

Mr Dorman, then 83, sold his home to pay for round-the-clock care with assisted living after being taken unwell with pneumonia.

But a care manager at Sevington Mill in Willesbourough sounded the alarm as Alan racked up a £26,000 debt after payments dried up.

The revelation ignited a twopronged investigation into Dorman, who had control of her dad’s finances, where Kent Police and Kent County Council unearthed the extent of her thievery.

“(Investigators) found the money from the sale of the house had been spent in a six month period,” prosecutor Craig Evans explained.

In fact, only £7 remained from the house sale after Dorman’s shopping binge, which included fashion shops, hotels, trains and £10,000 to friend ‘Catherine’.

Various transactions were made in lingerie chain Ann Summers, Peacocks, Pizza Express and Pandora.

A total of £7,000 was shelled out at the popular high street jewellery store in Eastbourne, with £3,500 of that going in just one day.

Hotel bills wracked up to the thousands; £2,121 went on Brighton’s Grand Hotel, payments went to lodgings in Folkestone, Eastbourne and Torquay in Devon.

Various transactions were made to train firms and £10,000 was transferred to her friend ‘Catherine’, as her father remained helpless.

Alan told the court the “catastrophic” consequences had jeapordised his home however, he asserted he still loves his daughter.

“I’m shocked and saddened by what has happened. She knew the money was meant to be for my care and I can’t think of any reason she would have spent it.

“I love my daughter, I didn’t raise Fiona to behave like this - I’m heartbroken.”

But Dorman’s barrister Ronnie Manek explained the two were now on speaking terms, seeking to make amends.

Mr Manek explained Dorman was homeless, ‘lost in her way’ and gripped by outside influences at the time of her offending in 2016.

Yet she had cleaned up her act in accommodated living while working 42-hours a week at a charity shop, explained Mr Manek, who also highlighted the pressures on the prison system mid-pandemic.

Dorman spoke only to confirm her name and admit breaching a suspended sentence order for a previous arson offence.

Judge O’Mahony told Dorman she must be jailed for 31-months for the “severe breach of trust” against “an elderly man who was not well.”

Dorman, now of Drove Road in Brighton, was also fined £100 for breaching the suspended sentence, her only previous conviction.

A care manager at Sevington Mill in Willesbourough sounded the alarm as Fiona Dorman’s father racked up a £26,000 debt

Judge James O’Mahony said ‘it was all the more bitter for him that the thief was his own daughter’