‘Convicted Warwickshire fraudster left me £12,000 out of pocket’

A BOOKKEEPER jailed after abusing her power of attorney to steal nearly a million pounds from an elderly Tysoe couple, has “offered little remorse or explanation for her actions”.

Susan Bruland, 57, was sentenced to five years in prison for two counts of fraud by abuse of position at Oxford Crown Court on 29th August, after pleading guilty to the charges.

As previously reported by the Herald, Bruland stole more than £901,000 from Janet and Michael Rumke, when Janet was in her late 70s and Michael in his early 80s and already suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Bruland took money from the victims’ bank accounts “to fund her own lifestyle and business transactions”, police say. And even after she’d drained the bank accounts, she carried on by liquidating the victims’ assets, including shares.

Callously, she didn’t even pay the cost of the couple’s care needs, leaving a care home owed “a substantial sum of money”.

The Herald has now heard how she also failed to pay other debts.

Jamie Glasspool, a director of Computer2Cloud, met Bruland via a Banbury-based business networking group. She asked him to do extensive work fitting wireless internet at The Brasenose Arms pub in Cropredy where, at the time, she owned a third share, though she no longer has anything to do with the business.

Jamie said he was never paid, leaving him £12,000 out of pocket.

When Jamie, who lives in Tysoe, first met certified bookkeeper Bruland, he says she seemed “nice enough, a quiet person”.

But when he asked for payment, she claimed to be suicidal: “There were tears and one time she said: ‘It’s got so bad’. She was helping with the cooking there [the pub] for a while. I don’t know whether that was just another sob story, but I was told: ‘She’s really poorly, she burnt herself, she had to go to hospital’.”

He added: “She definitely wasn’t living a lavish lifestyle.

Tysoe sub-postmaster Jacqueline Franklin, who is also a florist, said she had a “horrible” encounter with Bruland when she supplied flowers for a wedding in Cropredy.

Jacqueline, who took over running the village post office from her late mother Lilian Hopkins, knew Bruland as they had sons the same age.

Bruland ordered the flowers and met Jacqueline at The Brasenose Arms, where the wedding was held, to discuss what she wanted.

When Jacqueline delivered the blooms to the pub, she said the atmosphere was “horrible”. She recalled that despite having delivered exactly what was ordered, Bruland complained there weren’t enough flowers.

Jacqueline was paid, but told the Herald: “She was trying to get money off, I think,”

Ironically, Bruland tried to persuade Jacqueline’s mum Lilian to let her take over the bookkeeping for the post office business at one stage.

Thames Valley Police, who carried out the investigation, say that between July 2022 and October 2023, Bruland transferred a total of £901,498.23 from Jan and Michael Rumke’s bank accounts into accounts controlled by her, for her own personal use.

The transfers began on 27th July, 2022, when £19,200 was moved from the couple’s joint account to Bruland’s personal account, the same amount was transferred again just a few days later. In September 2022, £18,000 was transferred and was followed by numerous transfers until 30th December 2022, at which point the account was virtually empty.

Police also discovered Bruland had ‘gambled’ some of the stolen cash on a crypto venture that ironically turned out to be a scam.

In March 2023, Bruland transferred £25,000 to two separate recipients who claimed to work for an investment platform. Bruland began opening a number of bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets, investing £150,000 of the stolen money in cryptocurrency.

Bruland was arrested by police on 17th January 2024 and told officers she had borrowed money from the Rumkes to support her business. The police investigation found no evidence of a loan agreement.

Det Insp Duncan Wynn, head of Thames Valley Police’s Central Fraud Unit, said: “Bruland was not a relative but a long-standing family friend and appears to have been chosen due to her professional role as a bookkeeper. What quickly became clear was that Bruland was using the funds within the victims’ accounts to fund her own lifestyle and business transactions. Once the accounts ran dry, she was then able to continue this conduct by liquidating a number of the victims’ assets, including shares they held, again using them for her own benefit. She neglected to meet the cost of the care needs of the victims, leaving a care home being owed a substantial sum of money.

“In total Bruland took over £900,000 from two elderly vulnerable people she was given responsibility to act for.”

He added: “As the judge alluded to in their sentencing remarks, the defendant was given one of the most responsible positions there can be and callously disregarded this for her own means.”