A man accused of embezzling his girlfriend's life savings while she was in hospital, sent £115,000 to another woman - then married her, a court was told. William Dunn took cash from the accounts of Lynda Grant, a cancer nurse, who had to retire due to medical complications.
His Paisley Sheriff Court trial heard yesterday that he sent £115,000 from Lynda’s bank to Karen Anne Dolan. Lynda worked at the NHS’ Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, where she helped patients battling the disease.
And the court heard Dunn also transferred £5,971.46 from her National Health Service pension to his own account. Just months after the payments were made, Dunn and Dolan tied the knot.
Prosecutors claim Dunn, 69, pocketed the money after being granted Power of Attorney over Lynda, 63. Dunn, of Elderslie, Renfrewshire, denies embezzling £122,027.15 between May 26, 2015, and March 1, 2017.
The court heard Lynda had moved in with Dunn and that they planned to spend the rest of their lives together. But she spent nearly two years in hospital and a care home after experiencing complications from an operation and developing sepsis and a brain injury.
When she was released from the care home she discovered there was just a few hundred pounds left in her accounts - and that Dunn had got married to Dolan. Yesterday, the jury was told agreed facts in the case.
It was revealed that £115,000 had been moved from Lynda’s accounts into Dunn’s and then sent to Dolan in nine transactions. The document also revealed that Dunn and Dolan then wed on October 29, 2016.
Dunn denies embezzling the money, claiming that he agreed with Lynda and her son, Alan Grant, to reduce her assets and invest her cash so she wouldn’t be liable for care home costs. Lynda said she had no memory of agreeing to the plot and insisted it was something she would never have done.
Alan, who works as a teacher in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, also denied involvement with his mum and Dunn in reducing her assets. The 38-year-old was asked by prosecutor David McDonald if they had colluded in a bid to lower her care home costs.
He replied: “I completely and utterly reject that. Absolutely not, absolutely not. My mother, in a million years, would not do something like that, and neither would I.”
The court heard Dunn told Alan different stories about what had happened to the money and said he would pay it back. However he hasn’t repaid anything, it’s been claimed.
The jury was told Dunn claimed the money was tied up in an ISA that could only be accessed every six months and would be sent to Alan in January 2017. But Alan said he never received the money and was told it had been invested in a company in the Isle of Man which went bust.
He said: “As far as I was concerned what had been said was a load of rubbish. All we could do was contact the police or just accept that the money was gone. It was quite clear something was not right. There was different excuses and stories. The trust was gone.”
The trial, before Sheriff Bruce Erroch QC, continues.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here .
