A scammer who stole hundreds of thousands from her family left her dad saddled with a mortgage he didn’t ask for just as he started his retirement.
Clare Roughley subjected her parents, grandparents and even a woman she cared for to a vile campaign of theft over a number of years. The former bank employee was jailed back in October after admitting to using her insider knowledge to steal £325,000 from those who were supposed to trust her.
She set up online access to the accounts of her dad, Raymond Roughley, her mum, Delyn Roughley, and her nan, Theresa Leyland. Over a number of years, she drained their life savings to fund her escalating gambling addictions, as well as stealing thousands from a woman she was caring for.
READ MORE: Carer stole £325k from family including nan to fund gambling addiction
Today, the 40 year old was back before a judge at Liverpool Crown Court to be sentenced for mortgage fraud carried out during the same period. Peter Hussey, prosecuting, told the court that during 2015 and 2016, the same period she was stealing from her parents, Roughley applied for and then took out a mortgage in her father’s name to buy the home where her and her partner were living.
He said the couple had been unable to secure approval for a loan to buy 123 Recreation Street in St Helens and Roughley then asked her dad to be a guarantor, to which he agreed. However, she then set about tricking solicitors and the bank, Santander, that her dad actually wanted to buy it and that she was just helping him with the financial process.
The mortgage was granted in 2016 and Roughley paid a £26,000 deposit to the bank. Mr Hussey said that money came from funds she had stolen from her mum and nan. Raymond Roughley’s name remains on the mortgage and he remains liable for the monthly repayments to clear the £50,000 debt.
He was unaware of the fact that he was technically the owner of the home until the wider thefts became known in 2020 as his daughter was making payments before then. In a short statement to the court, he said: “It has caused me so much upset and stress as well as costing me financially.”
Jeremy Lasker, defending, asked the judge to take into account the fact that the mortgage fraud took place within the same context as the theft offences against her family and asked for her to be given a concurrent sentence. He said she was “genuinely suffering” due to the rupturing of ties with her family and her children and was focusing on the October 2024 date when she is set to be released on licence.
Mr Lasker said: “She accepts that she has done wrong. Your honour will recall the issues she had, the gambling addiction. She is now receiving counselling for that in custody. It is to her credit that she set that up herself.” Echoing his remarks at October’s sentencing hearing, the judge, Recorder Imran Shafi, QC, said Roughley had carried out an “extraordinary” crime and this had now resulted in her dad being left with a mortgage he didn’t want.
Recorder Shafi said: “He did not want to have further financial liabilities. You duped him, duped the conveyancing solicitors and duped the mortgage company, Santander, into thinking it was your father who was purchasing the property and that the property was for him.” Roughley, of HMP Drake Hall, was sentenced to 38 months in prison. However, that will be served concurrently with her other jail terms and means it will not affect her projected release from jail on licence in autumn 2024.
