FOR Nigel Shaw, the betrayal cuts deep. While admitting his sister Jennifer Bailey had spent much of her life lying, he never believed she could be so callous as to fritter away the money set aside for her mum's care.
In total, Bailey, 59, fleeced her mum Mabel Shaw's estate to the tune of £63,000, carrying out a complex series of transactions using different accounts to hide her spending. Bailey's scheming landed her in court where she pleaded guilty to theft and fraud and she will be sentenced later this month. Mr Shaw, 53, hopes she will be jailed.
"Jennifer has lied all her life and had this false front and it was often just silly little things," he said. "Having said that, I never thought she was capable of this.
"It turns out she hadn't even visited the home for the past two years before mum died. I feel numb and betrayed. I kept telling myself it couldn't be true.
"I started crying when I realised what Jennifer had done. This has been a long drawn-out episode. I hope she gets a custodial sentence."
Both Bailey and Mr Shaw were given power of attorney over their mum's estate following the sale of her house. They agreed Bailey would take care of the day-to-day finances when her mum was put into Keldgate Manor Residential Home in 2006 after suffering dementia.
"We had to put mum in a home about five years ago because she was suffering from Alzheimer's," he said. "We were both given power of attorney over our mum's estate.
"We agreed, seeing as Jennifer wasn't working, she would deal with mum's day-to-day finances. I trusted Jennifer emphatically and everything seemed to be okay.
"But that all changed in 2008 when I got a call from the residential home to say the manager had to fork out £400 because there wasn't any money coming in. That was a big shock because there should have been at least £40,000 left.
"At the same time Jennifer had stopped contact with me. I got suspicious. I called her but she insisted everything was OK but I just knew something wasn't right."
Mr Shaw, of Salthouse Lane in Hull, started to do some digging. "I tried to speak to the pensions people in Dundee to see why my mum's pension wasn't coming through," he said. "But they told me I didn't have power of attorney. I learnt Jennifer had taken me off.
"In 2009 I went to the bank, which looked at the account, and we realised the money had been spent all over the place."
Mr Shaw immediately confronted Bailey. "I went to see Jennifer in Selby but she just kicked off," he said. "My solicitor told me to call the police, which I did. I haven't seen Jennifer since."
Once Detective Constable Krista Wood, based at Beverley station, began her investigation, the true extent of Bailey's deception became clear.
"DC Wood has been fantastic and went through everything," Mr Shaw said. "It turns out Jennifer had used five different accounts using mine and my mum's name, to move the money round and avoid detection. "She would go into a place and buy something for a couple of quid and then get £50 cash back."
In a final callous act, she emptied the account on the day of her mum's death, taking the final £22,000.
"The police weren't sure whether to tell me but it turns out Jennifer took out the remaining £22,000 on the day our mum died. It is unbelievable. I didn't even know she knew how to do what she did.
"She spent the money on trips to the likes of Australia and Thailand. She was motivated by sheer greed. She wanted to keep up with the Jones's."
Mr Shaw believes his sister has no respect for their parents and their toil to provide for the family. Their dad was a shipyard plater and their mum was a school cook.
Mr Shaw said: "My mum and dad worked all their lives but my sister wanted something for nothing. I'm disgusted. I am not upset by the financial loss but by the way Jennifer treated my mum and dad and their memory."
Bailey will be sentenced later this month and whatever the outcome, Mr Shaw hopes to get his life back on track. "I do feel a sense of closure now and hopefully justice will be done," he said. "I have had many sleepless nights over this and just hope it will be better next year."
Jennifer Bailey took holidays using the money saved for her mother's careA FRAUD investigation was launched in 2009 after Nigel Shaw raised concerns over his mum Mabel Shaw's finances. The investigation took more than three years to complete and Jennifer Bailey continued to take money up until her mum's death in 2010.
It was finally completed earlier this year.
For almost four years, Bailey used the money saved to pay for her mum's care on spending sprees and holidays. Bailey, originally from Beverley but now living in Selby, pleaded guilty to spending £63,000 of her mum's money through theft and fraud by abuse of position.
Mrs Shaw died in January 2010 but the enquiry continued. Detective Constable Krista Wood, of Beverley CID, investigated the case. She 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, which was 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. She attended Hull Crown Court where she admitted the offences and will be sentenced on Friday, November 29.
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. 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."
