John Longley has been jailed for stealing from his sister

Eighty-year-old Grayrigg man John Longley spent years raiding his vulnerable sister’s bank account. A resident in a Grange-over-Sands care home, she was eventually left unable to afford to pay her care home fees, though the home’s owners generously agreed she could remain there until she passed away, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Longley was jailed for three years and two months after he admitted a single count of fraud.

Mark Stephenson, prosecuting, said the defendant’s sister Paula Slights suffered dementia but had granted Longley and his “lasting power of attorney” in 2012. She moved into the Cartmel Grange care home in March, 2014.

But in 2016, the payments to the care home became “erratic”, said Mr Stephenson and the following years a series of cheques bounced. An investigation later revealed how Longley, a former hospital transport driver and grandfather, had started to make withdrawals of cash from his sister’s account on March of 2013.

There were frequent withdrawals running into hundreds of pounds. By February the next year, more than £38,000 had been taken from the account, this having been spent “clearly not” on Paula Sleights, the court heard.

With funds from the sale of her house, the sum of £394,859 had over the years been paid into her account.

“Yet the account was left with just £17.50 in it,” said Mr Stephenson.

Some £153,160 was legitimately paid to the care home but the total value of Longley’s fraud was £312,797. The care home, meanwhile, was left with an unpaid bill for her care of £94,770. Because of the lack of funds, the local authority also contributed to her care, paying out £18,428, said Mr Stephenson.

In a victim impact statement, the defendant’s brother Michael said of his sister: “It would have been her wish that the money she made through her hard work and careful living was passed on to her grandchildren to help them on with their lives, which we all know will never happen now.”

He said the fraud would have an impact on the family for years to come, adding: “It deeply saddens me that John has done what he has done. I feel a crime of this magnitude and the vulnerable nature of the victim should be treated with the seriousness it deserves.”

Claire Larton, for Longley, said he had given his son £100,000 to invest in a business in Lancaster based bar business, which had failed.

The defendant has lost his job as a hospital driver in 2012. Now frail, he would be “incredibly vulnerable” in a prison setting, said the barrister. “Essentially as a result of his offending he has lost his entire extended family,” said Miss Larton.

But Longley accepted full responsibility for his crime, though he could not explain where most of the money had gone. The barrister said: “He wasn’t living the high life and he is not going to reoffend.”

Judge Nicholas Barker told Longley: “You took money from her account for your own purposes over many years... To steal - which is what it was - this amount of money, leaving the desperate figure of £17.50 left in your sister's account - is inevitably going to tear a family apart; and these are the consequences of your actions.”

Longley had also known that his actions had put his sister in a “perilous position”, said the judge, adding that it was a matter of good fortune she was not forced to leave her care home and allowed to remain, despite not paying the fees.

The judge said the fraud was a “significant abuse of trust.” Despite the defendant’s remorse, and previous positive good character, Judge Barker said such a fraud undermines the power of attorney system. Given the abuse of trust and the large sum involved, he could not pass a jail sentence that could be suspended, said the judge.

Paula Slights passed away in 2018.