Midlothian woman who secretly set up online banking to steal uncle's savings avoids prison
Niece who defrauded vulnerable uncle handed community sentence
A woman who stole £35,000 from an elderly relative has escaped a jail sentence.
Kelly Stewart helped set up online banking for accounts for her uncle David Renton before helping herself to his savings after he had temporarily moved into her home in 2018.
Stewart, 40, transferred large sums of cash from Mr Renton’s bank account after he had sold his own home and was waiting on a new tenancy.
The fraudulent scheme was uncovered when the victim became suspicious and after checking his bank statements he found numerous cash deposits into his niece’s account.
Stewart pleaded guilty to obtaining £35,000 by fraud when she appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this year and returned to the dock for sentencing on Tuesday.
Prosecutor Katie Adams told the court Mr Renton had moved into his niece’s Edinburgh home at and had all his mail including bank statements directed to her address in 2018.
Ms Adams said the following year Mr Renton had received around £45,000 in cash from the sale of a property but did not have internet banking set up to manage his two bank accounts.
The court was told Mr Renton subsequently moved out of Stewart’s home and had asked her to forward all his mail including bank statements to him.
She denied receiving any correspondence for him but it later emerged she had set up online banking in his name and had been transferring cash from his account into her own.
The fiscal depute said the police were contacted and it was found a total of £35,000 had been taken from Mr Renton’s accounts by his niece.
Defence agent Catriona Logan said her client suffered from a series of physical conditions and her doctor had stated a custodial sentence would be “very detrimental to her health”.
Ms Logan said Stewart, of Millerhill, Edinburgh, had brought £250 cash to court and could afford to pay £300 per month in compensation.
Sheriff Wendy Sheehan said: “You were put in a position of trust in caring for your elderly uncle and in taking a large proportion of the proceeds of his house over a three year period you abused that position of trust.
“He was a very vulnerable person at the time of the offence.
“You are very fortunate this was prosecuted on a summary complaint and not on indictment.”
The sheriff acknowledged Stewart is a first offender, has several heath difficulties and said she is “not likely to commit any further crimes”
Stewart was placed on a community payback order as an alternative to a custodial sentence and was told she will be supervised by the social work department for three years.
She will also have to wear an electronic tag on her ankle and stay at home between 8pm and 7am for the next nine months and must pay a compensation order of £300 per month.
Stewart pleaded guilty to forming a fraudulent scheme to obtain money by bank transfers and did transfer £35,000 without permission and obtained the money by fraud between July 15, 2019 and July 26, 2022.