A WOMAN fleeced her mum out of more than £60,000 as she lay in a care home suffering from Alzheimer's.
Jennifer Bailey, 59, abused her position of trust to spend £63,000 set aside for her mum Mabel Shaw's care at a residential home.
In a final callous act, she emptied the account on the day of her mum's death, taking the last £22,000.
Bailey attended Hull Crown Court to admit the offences and will be sentenced on Friday, November 29.
Detective Constable Krista Wood, who investigated the case, said: "Jennifer's last transaction was January 11, 2010, the day her mother passed away, and she withdrew £22,000, leaving nothing in her mother's bank account to even cover her funeral."
Bailey and her brother Nigel Shaw were given power of attorney over their mum's estate and they agreed Bailey would take care of the day-to-day finances when her mum was put into Keldgate Manor residential home in Beverley after suffering dementia.
But when the care home called Mr Shaw to say payment had not been received, he became suspicious.
Mr Shaw made enquiries and was dismayed to find out that his mother's money had indeed run out, although there should have been plenty left over from the sale of his mother's house a couple of years earlier.
A fraud investigation was launched in 2009 and was completed earlier this year. Over three years, Bailey went on spending sprees and holidays, using the money saved to pay for her mother's care.
Bailey, originally from Beverley but now living in Selby, pleaded guilty to spending £63,000 of her mother's money through theft and fraud by abuse of position.
Although Mrs Shaw died in January 2010, the police investigation continued.
DC Wood, of Beverley CID, said: "Production orders for several of Mrs Shaw's bank accounts and conveyancing files from the sale of her house took months to come through.
"Eventually, when all the files were ready, I went through all of the accounts with a fine-toothed comb and followed the money through various accounts in bits and bobs to see where it had gone.
"It transpired that the money had been spent over a period of several years by Jennifer, who was using it to fund her own lifestyle, shopping, days out, spending money for foreign holidays, and so on. This continued until the money was gone.
"The amounts added up to a total of £63,000 missing from Mrs Shaw's accounts, having been spent by her daughter Jennifer."
When Bailey was interviewed by the police, she refused to co-operate and the case eventually went to court.
DC Wood said: "Mr Shaw is overjoyed at this outcome, as all he ever wanted was to get to the truth.
"He is also out of pocket, having been defrauded out of his potential inheritance from his mother's estate, but this was not the primary driver in him making this report to the police.
"He had trusted Jennifer to take care of paying the nursing home for the care of their mother and she let his mother down."
