A woman swindled thousands of pounds from her partner’s bank account after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, before blowing savings he had put aside for his funeral.
Rebecca Leveridge, 52, and Danny Gray had been an item for 20 years, meaning when he became seriously ill in May 2018, he entrusted her to help look after his finances.
Mr Gray was dealt a blow when informed by NHS doctors that he might only have three to six months to live. However, he survived longer with chemotherapy. Leveridge took on a “caring role” and he handed her £5,000 to keep safe, to cover his funeral expenses.
They never married, both had grown-up children from former relationships and they kept separate bank accounts, a court was told, according to Leicestershire Live.
Steven Taylor, prosecuting, said Leveridge, from Enderby, deliberately kept quiet when Mr Gray’s £36,350 pension lump sum went into his Barclays account in September, 2018.
Nor did she mention that a £595-a-month personal independence allowance he applied for had commenced. She swiftly began “siphoning off” nearly £25,000 into her own account, in numerous transactions.
Mr Taylor said: “She was helping herself to money that he did not know he had.” Eventually Mr Gray, asked his sister, Diane, to follow up the overdue pension and allowance money he was expecting.
It resulted in Leveridge’s dishonesty coming to light, in November 2019. Mr Gray was shocked by the betrayal of trust and alerted Leicestershire Police and cut her out of his will.
He and his family - who took over his daily care - told the defendant to move out of Mr Gray’s home. Leveridge, a grandmother, of Salisbury Avenue, Croft, pleaded guilty, at an earlier hearing, to theft of £24,700 and defrauding Mr Gray out of a further £5,000 - of which she repaid just £2,250 and nothing more.
Mr Gray’s death two years later, in September 2020, aged 60, coincided with Barclays Bank refunding the stolen money in full. Mr Taylor said: “Sadly he’d been deprived of the money and didn’t know if he was ever going to get it back.
“For the last two years of his life, when suffering from cancer, he didn’t get any of the benefit of it for himself or spend it in the way he would of liked.” The court heard the lack of financial security made Mr Gray, who had two adult sons, unnecessarily feel like a burden to his family.
He worried about not leaving them as much money as he wished. However his estate was reimbursed.
Judge Ebrahim Mooncey asked where the money went. Mr Taylor said that Leveridge paid off a £2,500 credit card bill, gave one daughter £1,600 and another £1,000, as well as spending £1,000 on a bathroom upgrade at Mr Gray’s home. The rest was generally frittered away.
Sarah Wyeth, mitigating, said: “She wants everyone to know how sorry she is. She’s bitterly remorseful for her actions.” She said Leveridge was a part-time retail worker, also providing essential childcare for two of her three young grandchildren.
Ms Wyeth said: “If she went into custody she’d lose her job It’s accepted Mr Gray was vulnerable at the time of the offending and there was a degree of trust, but she did not have Power of Attorney.”
She said the stolen money was not spent on “high ticket” designer goods, holidays or a luxury lifestyle, but mostly on normal household expenditure, including groceries, petrol, garden furniture and clothing while caring for Mr Gray, that he would also have benefited from.
She described the defendant as having been “a loving partner” who moved out “with nothing” except her clothes and the job she had at the time.
Sentencing, Judge Mooncey said: “Your mitigation started with an apology to anyone who may have been hurt by what happened. We could hear some grumbles about that (in the public gallery).
“Understandably that’s how some of Mr Gray’s family and friends reacted because they feel a deep sense of loss for Mr Gray, at what was the autumn of his life and things could have been better for him.
They thought that, after 20 years together, that’s when your support and care for him should have been at its’ maximum.
“They either rejected your apology or took it with a huge pinch of salt. I hope, in time, they do see the bigger picture and see that you did have mostly good times during 20 years of togetherness.
“I accept you are sorry for what happened. You and Mr Gray never married, you don’t have children together and maintained separate financial affairs.
“Had you and he married, your position may have been different, but we have to base matters on as they are.” The judge said Leveridge never told Mr Gray that two streams of money, a pension lump sum and an allowance had been paid into his account.
He said: “Instead you took the money for yourself and it was transferred to your account using a banking app.
"You spent the £5,000 given to you by Mr Gray, for his funeral expenses, and in the fullness of time you gave about half of it back but didn’t give the rest back because you felt hard done by and were told to leave the property.
“I accept there’s no evidence the money went on luxuries and there’s no suggestion of a secret gambling habit. Your biggest loss is the loss of your previous good character. I see no benefit to the public in locking you up.”
Leveridge was given a 16 month jail sentence, suspended for two years. She was ordered to pay Barclays Bank £2,000 towards compensation.
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