Mother ordered to repay £50k inheritance she stole from daughters

Telegraph

3 days ago

A mother has been ordered to repay £50,000 she stole from her daughters, which had been bestowed on them in their grandmother's will.
Katherine Hill, 54, and her father Gerald Hill, 94, from south Wales, were said to have acted out of 'greed and spite' in staging the 'blatant and brazen' theft.
Margaret Hill had intended to place the money in a trust for her grandchildren, Gemma and Jessica Thomas, which could be accessed on their 25th birthdays.
Katherine and Gerald were made trustees of the account when Mrs Hill died in 2013 and secretly drained the account in just over a year.
The deceit was only discovered in 2018 when one of the daughters sought to access the money early to buy a house with her boyfriend, which was allowed under the terms of the will.
Prosecutors said the withdrawals had been made either by Katherine, who worked at Lloyds Bank, or by their father acting as a 'useful stooge'.
Gerald claimed he had posted the cash to his grandchildren in envelopes but the daughters claimed to have never received a penny.
The pair were found guilty of fraud by abuse of position last year, with Katherine sentenced to 30 months in prison, of which she served half in custody, and Gerald received a 12-month suspended sentence.
The judge told Katherine she stole the money because she was 'so annoyed that your daughters received more money than you, that you took their inheritance'.
They returned to Swansea Crown Court for a proceeds of crime hearing.
James Hartson, prosecuting, said Katherine had initially told investigators she had a 50 per cent equity share in her partner's home after paying the mortgage for nine years.
She later withdrew the claim and said she had no equitable right to the house, with Mr Hartson saying the move was a 'thoroughly dishonest' attempt to avoid payment.
Judge Greg Bull KC ruled in favour of the prosecution, saying Katherine had 'laundered' some of her daughters' money by paying her partner's mortgage.
He said Katherine and Phillip Lloyd, a window cleaner, 'lived together as man and wife' and she could repay her daughters by raising equity from their home.
Mr Bull said: 'It is significant that investigations could not reveal what had happened either to that £50,000, or to what had happened to other relatively substantial sums left to Katherine Hill after her mother's demise.
'She still maintains that she has never received the £50,000. I disbelieve her on that and I find her answer to be totally untruthful.
'Mr Lloyd is fully aware of what happened to that £50,000 and has probably helped her at least launder it, if not enjoy the fruits of her fraud.'
Mr Bull added: 'That £50,000 was used for the benefit of both of them, it would have been used to pay the mortgage, it would have been used to pay their utilities, it would have used to enjoy their lifestyles - a lifestyle that they would not have been able to afford.'
Katherine was told she must pay £50,000 in three months or face six months' imprisonment in default, while Gerald was ordered to pay £6,000 for his part in the fraud or face three months in prison.