3 years for carer who took widow’s £126,000
A callous carer who stole more than £126,000 from an elderly widow was jailed for three years yesterday.
SWNS
Tanya Benjamin went to great lengths to befriend wealthy Margaret Sail, 85, by going to church and reading her the Bible.
A court heard Benjamin, 60, was being paid £300 a week to carry out chores at Mrs Sail’s home in Beeston, Nottingham.
She had lived there alone since her husband died in 1995 after making a £4million fortune in the furniture business.
In December last year a family friend who helped Mrs Sail with her finances noticed four cheques had been removed from her cheque book.
SWNS
One had been cashed for £160, but he thought nothing of it until March, when he noticed that another for £126,000 had also been cashed.
He contacted the bank which revealed that both cheques had been written out to Tanya Benjamin. Benjamin claimed Mrs Sail handed her the cheques as a gift to pay off her mortgage but a handwriting expert concluded the widow had not signed them.
Benjamin denied theft and two counts of fraud but was found guilty after a four-day trial at Nottingham Crown Court in October.
Yesterday Benjamin, of Stapleford, Notts, was jailed at the same court.
Police were able to recover £54,280 from her bank account and a box containing £63,000 in cash was later found at her home, leaving £8,880 unaccounted for.
