Latest news with #KatherineHill
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Mother, 54, who 'looted' £50,000 from her own daughters' trust that had been left to them in their grandmother's will must pay back every penny
A 'greedy' mother has been ordered to pay back the £50,000 inheritance she stole from her daughters that was left to them in their grandmother's will. Katherine Hill, 54, and her father Gerald Hill, 94, from south Wales, acted out of 'greed and spite' in taking the sum left for her daughters Gemma and Jessica Thomas. The £50,000 bequest was made for them by their grandmother Margaret Hill on the provision that they could access it when they turned 25 or wanted to buy a house. One of the girls then asked for access to the cash and discovered it was gone. Katherine and her father were trustees of the account when Margaret died in 2013, but they both raided the account of every penny in the space of a year. They were both last year found guilty of fraud by abuse of position with Katherine sentenced to 30 months imprisonment, where she served half in custody and half on licence. Gerald Hill was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. The Hills returned to Swansea Crown Court for a Proceeds of Crime Hearing in a bid to claw back their ill-gotten gains. Prosecutor James Hartson said Hill initially told investigators she had a 50 per cent equity share in her partner's home after paying the mortgage for nine years. Katherine Hill's daughters Gemma (left) and Jessica Thomas (right) lost their £50,000 inheritance thanks to their mother and grandfather's actions But she later withdrew the claim and said she had no equitable right to the house - with Mr Hartson saying her change of stance was a 'thoroughly dishonest' attempt to avoid payment. Judge, Recorder Greg Bull KC, ruled in favour of the prosecution, and said Hill had 'laundered' some of her daughters' money by paying her partner's mortgage. He said Hill and window cleaner Phillip Lloyd 'lived together as man and wife' and she could repay her daughters by raising equity from their home. Recorder 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.' Recorder Bull said: '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.' 'This is a couple who lived as man and wife, they shared their income and they shared the money looted by Miss Hill from her daughters.' Katherine was told she must pay £50,000 in three months or face six month prison in default. Mr Hill was ordered to pay £6,000 for his part in the fraud or face three months in prison. The court heard if neither of the Hills pay they will be jailed but their debts would not be cleared. In a victim impact statement read at Swansea Crown Court following the Hills' conviction, Jessica Thomas said she found it difficult how her family could cause her so much 'harm and pain' and the fact that they can lie so easily 'scares' her. The qualified nurse added: 'Financially, my life has been affected more than I thought.' In a written statement, her sister Gemma said that their actions have caused her to be in debt and 'it's been a great deal of emotional and financial stress.' She added that she feels 'let down and lied to' by two people who are meant to be her 'blood and family.' The withdrawals, made over the course of a year, included one for £15,000 and others for £10,000 - along with a single bank transfer of £2,300 directly into Katherine Hill's account. She claimed that transaction was used to pay for the family's boxer dog operation which Jessica had agreed to, adding that smaller amounts of money were spent on shopping trips at New Look and Primark on behalf of her daughters. She said: 'It was for their benefit - I didn't think I was doing anything wrong.' The fraud was only identified in 2018 when one of the daughters asked to access her share of the funds early to help buy a house with her boyfriend. Solicitors began a civil investigation into the fund and the police were called in.
The Sun
15 hours ago
- General
- The Sun
‘Greedy & spiteful' mum who ‘looted' £50,000 inheritance left for her two daughters, 12 & 15, by their granny is jailed
A MOTHER was ordered to pay back £50,000 "looted" from her own daughters inheritance left to them in their grandmother's will. Katherine Hill, 54, and her father Gerald Hill, 94, staged a "blatant and brazen" fraud, taking every penny inherited by the two girls from their beloved gran. 3 3 The sizeable £50,000 inheritance was generously gifted for Gemma and Jessica Thomas by their grandmother Margaret Hill in a trust for their 25th birthdays. Margaret died in 2013 and placed the money for the two girls in a trust when Jessica was 12 and Gemma was 15. Katherine Hill and her father Gerald were trustees of the account - but drained it completely within just over a year while the girls were still children. A court heard that due to inflation the sum stolen by their "greedy and spiteful" mother and grandfather was now worth in the region of £65,000. But their shameless mother and grandfather tried to lie their way out of it by claiming they posted cash in envelopes through the girls' letterboxes. However the Hills were found guilty - with Katherine Hill jailed for 30 months and her father handed a 12 month suspended sentence. The judge told Hill she stole the money because she was 'so annoyed that your daughters received more money than you, that you took their inheritance'. The court heard Katherine Hill had placed the money into an instant access Barclays Everyday Saver account despite being advised not to. She and her father both had cards for the account and within 12 months of it opening most of the £50,000 had been withdrawn through cash withdrawals. The fraud was only realised in 2018 when one of the girls asked for her money early so she could buy a house with her boyfriend. Sickening moment two school children steal puppy from Glasgow garden The Hills returned to Swansea Crown Court for a Proceeds of Crime Hearing in a bid to claw back their ill-gotten gains. Prosecutor James Hartson said Hill initially told investigators she had a 50 per cent equity share in her partner's home after paying the mortgage for nine years. But she later withdrew the claim and said she had no equitable right to the house - with Mr Hartson saying her change of stance was a "thoroughly dishonest" attempt to avoid payment. Judge, Recorder Greg Bull KC ruled in favour of the prosecution, and said Hill had "laundered" some of her daughters' money by paying her partner's mortgage. He said Hill and window cleaner Phillip Lloyd "lived together as man and wife" and she could repay her daughters by raising equity from their home. Recorder 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." Recorder Bull said: "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." "This is a couple who lived as man and wife, they shared their income and they shared the money looted by Miss Hill from her daughters." Katherine Hill was told she must pay £50,000 in three months or face six month prison in default. Mr Hill was ordered to pay £6,000 for his part in the fraud or face three months in prison. The court heard if neither of the Hills pay they will be jailed but their debts would not be cleared.
National Observer
21-05-2025
- Science
- National Observer
Feather forensics offers a way to root out poachers
This story was originally published by bioGraphic and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration Every year, the illegal wildlife trade ensnares millions of wild birds in a vast global industry worth up to US $23 billion. Poaching for the black market affects a huge diversity of life, including nearly half of all bird species. Songbirds and parrots are particularly popular targets, with thousands illegally caught and traded every year. Proving that a bird sold as a pet was born in captivity, rather than poached from the wild, is difficult. Tracking a bird's origins, says Katherine Hill, an invasive species biologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia, relies on paperwork, 'which can obviously be forged relatively simply.' Over the past few decades, however, scientists have been developing a technique that can hint at whether an animal hails from the wild or captivity. Known as stable isotope analysis, the approach involves analyzing the abundance of different forms of certain chemical elements in an animal's tissues. Stable isotope analysis works on birds because their feathers lock in identifiable chemical signatures as they grow, creating a snapshot of a period of the bird's life, Hill says. Captive birds, for example, tend to eat corn and sorghum. Wild birds eat more fruits, nuts, and wild plant seeds. This altered diet skews the chemical analysis, giving scientists an accurate way to gauge what kinds of foods a bird has been eating. Scientists have used stable isotope analysis to study bird diets for s everal years. But earlier projects aiming to tease out birds' origins largely focused on a few endangered parrot species with limited diets, small populations, or small ranges. Hill wanted to see if she could apply the technique to parrot species with relatively large geographic ranges that eat a wider variety of foods. In particular, she focused on four common Australian parrots that are popular as pets—galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla), sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita), little corellas (Cacatua sanguinea), and long-billed corellas (Cacatua tenuirostris). Beginning in December 2020, Hill set out around Adelaide, where she scanned the streets for the vibrant white, yellow, or pink shocks of wild parrot feathers. COVID-19-related lockdowns meant it was difficult for Hill and her colleagues to visit zoos or aviaries to collect the feathers of captive parrots. Instead, they created a community-science initiative to collect feathers from the public. Spreading the word through social media, local news organizations, and other places likely to catch the eyes of animal lovers, the scientists harnessed dozens of volunteers from across South Australia who collectively sent in thousands of feathers they found in the wild or gathered from the bottom of their pets' cages. The project became a way for people to connect with nature, Hill says. Pooling the feathers by species, and splitting them by whether they came from wild or captive birds, Hill and her colleagues found that stable isotope analysis can accurately distinguish between wild and captive galahs nearly 90 percent of the time, and the other parrot species 74 percent of the time. The isotope research from those four parrot species will provide data that other scientists can use in future studies as well. The technique offers a potent way to identify poached birds. But it is possible, says Hill, to cheat the test. If a captive bird is fed a diet similar to what a wild one would eat—or if wild birds have particularly diverse diets or access to something similar to pet food—it could muddy the results. But, says Hill, when used with other tools, isotope analysis could tip off law enforcement that a bird might have been poached, giving the authorities reason to investigate further. The value of stable isotope analysis is also constrained by time, Hill says. Because birds regularly grow and molt their feathers, each piece of plumage only reflects the time between molts. For many parrots, that's about a year. This means the technique would be best at identifying birds that were captured from the wild within that time frame. Astrid Andersson, a conservation biologist at the University of Hong Kong, says the effectiveness of stable isotope analysis to distinguish between captive and wild parrots aligns with previous research, including her own work on a Chinese population of yellow-crested cockatoos. 'It's really important to expand the number of species that have this stable isotope data,' says Andersson. Different species need their own stable isotope datasets, she says. 'We need to build up the database that authorities could potentially refer to.' Wildlife authorities don't often use stable isotope analysis in their investigations and, to date, the technique isn't being regularly used in bird-poaching investigations. But analyzing feathers could be a powerful new tool in the anti-poaching toolbox, says Kate Brandis, a wildlife forensics expert at the University of New South Wales in Australia. 'This is still a developing area,' she says. But research like Hill's is 'demonstrating that this does have a place in fighting the illegal wildlife trade.'
Daily Mirror
12-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Gardeners name 'wonder' kitchen scrap that will boost hydrangeas and roses
Gardening enthusiasts have revealed that there is a kitchen scrap which can be used to boost the blooms of hydrangeas and roses - and it can be found in most households Gardeners across the UK are buzzing about a natural soil enhancer that could give their hydrangeas and roses an extra blooming edge – used coffee grounds from your kitchen. Katherine Hill sparked a lively discussion on the Gardening Hints and Tips Facebook group when she inquired: "I've heard great things about using coffee grounds in the garden, but will they boost the blooms of my roses and hydrangeas?" She dug deeper with questions about application methods: "If so, when putting coffee grounds into your soil, is it possible to put too much? Should I just sprinkle onto the soil or does it need to be mixed in?" Katherine shared her eagerness to try this eco-friendly trick: "I am always throwing out coffee grounds, but I would like to start using them this spring." The post received a groundswell of green-thumbed responses as Lana Lane offered her thumbs-up: "I sprinkle a handful of them around my blueberries, hydrangeas, azaleas and roses and they've never looked better." Sarah Williams advised on a potential pitfall: "Yes in theory. If there's too much caffeine in them it is a growth inhibitor, but a little will do wonders for the plants." Pat Ward commented on her gardening routine: "I throw them all over the yard in shrub and flower beds all year." Lastly, Lyndall Heyer shared her success story: "I just spread around my rosebushes and hydrangeas all summer and they flourish nicely." Sam Bullock gushed about his garden's success, saying: "My hydrangeas, azaleas and roses are thriving right now. They have bigger and better blooms than last year and all I've done differently is added some coffee grounds to the soil." Green-thumbed experts are in agreement that acid-loving beauties such as hydrangeas and roses can truly flourish with a touch of coffee grounds, reports the Express. For those looking to replicate the effect, Millie Durbak from Prestige Flowers has some advice: "Mix used coffee grounds with your garden soil or sprinkle them around the base of your plants." She goes on to highlight the virtues of coffee waste: "The organic matter in coffee grounds improves soil structure and helps with water retention, as well as keeping microbes happy." Not to mention the pep it gives to your patch: "The caffeine content in coffee grounds acts as a natural stimulant, promoting microbial activity in the soil and boosting nutrient absorption, resulting in healthier and more robust plants." It's even been said by gardening enthusiasts that using coffee grounds might nudge hydrangeas towards a striking blue hue, though patience is key, as it's a long-term tactic to up the soil acidity.
