Even though her own family demanded that the granddaughter be punished, she walked free from court after gambling away her elderly grandmother’s whole life savings.
The family of Carrie Chadwick, 41, condemned her for the “heinous and unforgivable” theft from Kathleen Lancaster, a grandmother who suffers from dementia.
When the widow’s severe dementia was discovered, Ms Chadwick was given control of Ms Lancaster’s funds and spent about £46,000 over the course of two and a half years.
Throughout the thefts, Ms. Lancaster’s phone and television were being disconnected because she was unable to pay her expenses.
Additionally, she had so little food at home that all that was left in her cupboard was soup and biscuits.
The grandson of Ms. Lancaster, Adam Dawber, issued a statement in which he referred to Carrie as “pure evil” for what she had done to this family.
Gran’s health had become worse, and the family found it unpleasant to hear her weep often.
I tried to keep it together so that my wife Kirsty and Gran wouldn’t see us sad. After a few times taking her out, we had to stop due of Covid.
“Kirsty and I were impacted by this because, like you, we couldn’t understand why Carrie would do such a terrible thing.
Then we learned that this had been going on for longer than we had realised. This is absolutely abhorrent, nasty, and inexcusable.
“Carrie has brought our family so much heartache it’s unbelievable.”
She doesn’t seem to be sorry. Nothing Carrie Chadwick did to this family will ever be forgiven.
She would be judged by God himself, he continued.
The elderly woman was transferred into a care facility after falling, but she was kicked out when Ms. Chadwick didn’t pay any costs, leaving her with nothing except a damaged pair of slippers, one outfit, and a few pairs of underwear.
After family members revealed her grand-treachery, daughter’s Mrs. Lancaster was able to go to another nursing facility but passed away in June of last year at the age of 85.
Chadwick lost a significant amount of money on gaming and gambling websites including Betfred, Google Play, Ladbroke, Skybet, and Tombola.
She once won $5,400, but instead of returning any of the stolen money, she spent the money on a vehicle.
After receiving a two-year prison sentence with two years suspended and 240 hours of unpaid labour at Bolton Crown Court, Ms. Chadwick, of Wigan, avoided going to jail.
She informed the court that she had two fragile kids to take care of.
The court was informed that Ms. Lancaster had been living freely in her Wigan council home until May 2016, when she was given a dementia diagnosis.
With access to her bank accounts, Ms. Chadwick was given the responsibility of taking care of her, including handling her funds and paying her expenses.
Police found that Ms. Chadwick moved £1,500 to herself only one day after being granted access to her grandmother’s Halifax account.
She made 203 payments to gambling websites using Ms. Lancaster’s TSB account, withdrew a total of £3,771 in cash, and then spent an additional £4,504 for her personal living costs.
Additionally, she made 137 withdrawals totaling £24,111 from her grandmother’s Post Office account, for a total of £45,799.
87 was taken and only £560 was reimbursed.
The family did have some concerns in 2017 when they observed Kathleen’s Virgin TV and phone had been disconnected for non-payment of the bill on many occasions, and there was little food in the home, such as just biscuits and soup, according to Philip Hall, the prosecutor.
With regard to mitigation, Rebecca Smith said that her client was a widow herself with 13-year-old twins, one of whom had a genetic disease and the other of whom has mental health problems.
She is aware that the court will impose a custodial sentence today, but Ms. Smith continued, “I’m requesting that it be suspended to allow her to care for her children and provide the only support system that they have.”
Miss Chadwick is forced to deal with the terrible repercussions of stealing the money from her grandma.
She claims that by taking responsibility, she is demonstrating to the court that she is sorry for the pain she caused since she was unable to apologise or say farewell.
When handing out sentences, Chadwick Judge Martin Walsh said, “This was a nasty and vile act perpetrated over a sustained length of time against your fragile grandma when you were in a high degree of trust.”
But because you are the twins’ primary caregiver and they are 13 years old, I must obviously consider how any punishment would affect them.
By a hair’s breadth, you have managed to avoid going to jail thanks to your parental duties for your two fragile children.
Chadwick was given permission to keep two further theft and neglect accusations on file.