Trusted Alcester carer Beverley Broadway stole savings from 94-year-old Mary Williams after falling for dating website scammer
A CARE worker from Alcester who defrauded a 94-year-old woman of many thousands of pounds had done it to pay a man in Turkey she’d met on a dating website that she later discovered was a scam.
Beverley Broadway, aged 59, was given a suspended sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment at Warwick Crown Court this week and ordered to pay £4,000 in compensation to the estate of the elderly woman, Mary Williams, who died in January this year.
Sentencing Broadway the judge, Michael Fowler, told her: “Someone else was preying on you and you were preying on Mrs Williams.” He said: “Obviously it all added to the stress her family have had to cope with – dealing with this matter as well as dealing with the loss of his [her son’s] mother.”
The judge added: “All of this arises from the fact that you took advantage of your position as a carer – borrowing money and then going on to steal it, knowing that some day Mrs Williams would discover it and you would have to deal with it.”
Elizabeth Power, prosecuting, told the court that Broadway faced one charge of fraud, by abuse of position, committed between 14th October 2020 and 5th November 2020. She said Broadway was of previous good character.
Ms Power said that during the period of offending Mrs Williams (who was known as Barbara) was living in a flat in Alcester where she received visits from employees of Alcester Home Care, who provided services such as companionship, housekeeping and personal care.
Broadway was a carer, employed by Alcester Home Care, and would visit Mrs Williams twice a day. “There were other carers who would visit Mrs Williams, but it is fair to say that she was particularly fond of Beverley Broadway and made those feelings known to the care provider,” said Ms Power. “This led to an increase in the frequency of Beverley Broadway’s visits.”
Ms Power said that Mrs Williams never provided a statement – in part because the Covid lockdown restricted the ability of the police to visit her – and so the main evidential narrative was provided by her son, Roger Williams.
“He spoke of how, in early November, he received a call from his mother as she had received a letter from her bank concerning the setting up of an online banking facility on her account,” said Ms Power. “She had expressed some confusion about this because, as far as she was aware, she had not set this up.”
Ms Power said Mr Williams visited his mother on 7th November 2020, which was a couple of days later, where he saw the letter for himself. “Mrs Williams told him that she had rung the bank to be told that her flexible saver account had about £6,000 left in it,” said Ms Power. “This alerted Mr Williams, who had power of attorney concerning his mother’s affairs, as he knew there should have been around £30,000 in that account.”
Mrs Williams then told her son that she had loaned £500 to Beverley Broadway. “She later admitted to him she had been economical with the truth – suspecting that he would not have received the news well – and said that the true figure had actually been £1,000,” said Ms Power.
Ms Power said that Mr Williams gained access to his mother’s bank statements and saw that a number of transfers had been made into an account in Beverley Broadway’s name.
The amounts were: on 15th October, 2020 - £700; on 19th October, 2020 - £10,000; on 21st October, 2020 - £5,000; on 23rd October, 2020 - £6,010; on 30th October, 2020 - £3,100; on 3rd November, 2020 - £770; on 4th November, 2020 - £1,000. The total amount was £26,580.
Mr Williams then contacted Alcester Home Care and reported what had happened. Dr Andrew Wallis, a GP and owner of the business, conducted an internal investigation in which he met with Beverley Broadway.
Ms Power said: “She said to him that she had a friend of 25 years who had passed away in Turkey and that she had received an email which stated that a security box containing money had been left for her, but that she would need to pay £850 to get it through customs.
“She went on to say to Dr Wallis that the costs spiralled to £49,000 but, as she had expected to receive £250,000 from the security box, she continued to pay them. She added that she had mentioned it to Mrs Williams, who had lent her £25,810. She said that she had helped her set up online banking in order to make the transfers. She acknowledged that what she had done was not in accordance with company policy.”
Broadway’s employment was subsequently terminated. On 9th November, 2020 Broadway visited Mrs Williams’ home address (by which time she had been suspended from work). The warden, Ginny Troth, saw her arrive and reported it to the care company and then the police. Ms Troth witnessed Mrs Williams tell the police she had lent Beverley Broadway £1,000.
“During her visit, Mrs Williams called her son to say that Beverley Broadway was with her and was saying that she wanted to pay the money back and was after her bank details,” said Ms Power. “Mr Williams confirmed that his mother did not have internet banking, the inference being that it must have been Beverley Broadway that had set it up.”
Broadway was interviewed on 20th February, 2021 and accepted having transferred the money into her account, but said that Mrs Williams had given her permission in respect of £10,700 of it. She said, ‘It was meant to be helping me and my partner at the time get a box from Turkey to England, which I found out in the end was a scam’.
“She said she met this man on a dating site,” said Ms Power. “She said the money was sent straight to Turkey (there is support for this contention in Beverley Broadway’s bank statements. She said she thought she sent around £30,000 to this man in total.
“She said that Mrs Williams noticed she was looking ‘down’ one day and she ended up offering to help her by lending her money. She said that Mrs Williams called her bank to transfer the first two amounts (£700 and £10,000) but she did the rest herself without Mrs Williams knowing.
“She said that she felt awful about it. She confirmed that she remembered being told by her employer that she was ‘not to do anything with money with clients or anything like that…or take money off clients’.
“She said she was aware that Mrs Williams had both physical and mental issues; she had access to her care plan. She spoke a little about her finances. She said ‘I’m in arrears in my house. I’ve bills coming out of everywhere. So everybody’s saying they want the money. But you can’t do it on Universal Credit’.
“She accepted that she had committed a criminal offence and added ‘I go to bed every night wondering how I can get it back to her’.”
Ms Power said Broadway had reasserted that Mrs Williams willingly lent her £10,700. “That is not accepted by the Crown but, in any event, she should not have taken that money – given her position – even if it had been willingly given,” said Ms Power.
She added: “This is a case of high culpability, given the abuse of a position of trust. This factor is exacerbated by the vulnerability of Mrs Williams, given her age and frailties. It was also an offence which involved seven transactions over the course of three weeks.”
Christopher Hilton, defending, said Broadway had admitted the offences. He said her husband had passed away and a second partner also passed away. “She was unfortunately very lonely when she went on to the dating website,” he said.
Intervening, the judge said: “The prosecution have accepted it was a scam and that she was a victim of the scam, but she didn’t lose herself.” He added: “That provides a reason for her needing the money, but it does not justify her stealing from Mrs Williams.”
Mr Hilton responded: “It was out of character for her to have done so. She was in a good job and 59 years of age.” He added: “She enjoys helping people, but because of a turn in her personal life she made very wrong decisions and Mrs Williams was a victim of that. She did something wholly out of character.”
The judge said he was giving Broadway “25 per cent credit for pleading guilty”, increasing it to a third because of her previous good character. He said he was sentencing her to 12 months in prison, adding: “It is with some reluctance that I conclude that it should be suspended.” He said the sentence was valid over a period of 24 months.
Broadway was also ordered to do 200 hours of community work and pay compensation to Mrs Williams’s estate of £4,000, in payments of £150 a month, starting in 28 days’ time.
After the hearing Mrs Williams’s son, Roger Williams, told the Herald: “We’re disappointed the sentence was suspended. The judge did say he made the decision reluctantly.”
