‘Greedy’ care dwelling bosses jailed after drafting pretend will | UK | News | EUROtoday

Three aged care staff turned fraudsters will spend the following three years behind bars after they tried to swindle an 85-year-old lady out of her  life financial savings.

Amberley Care Home bosses Graham Walker, 74, and spouse Lyn, 71, teamed up with supervisor Jamiel Slaney-Summers, 65, to forge a convoluted plot to swindle Rita Barnsley, an “isolated” and “frail” lady that had been left of their care, a courtroom heard.

The courtroom heard advised that the “vulnerable” Miss Barnsley moved into the care dwelling after changing into unwell in May 2020. At the time, the Walkers owned the care dwelling, whereas Slaney-Summers was the registered supervisor, The Mirror experiences.

Miss Barnsley died in the summertime of 2021 on the aged care facility in Brierley Hill, West Midlands. She left behind a will that had apparently been created in the beginning of that very same yr, which appointed Lyn and Slaney-Summers because the executors of her property.

The “sham” doc thanked her supposed “good friend” – care supervisor Slaney-Summers – “for the happiness and laughter she gave me” and awarded her 50 per cent of the estate. Aged care home owner Lyn Walker, meanwhile, was given 25 per cent as a show of thanks “for permitting me to remain in her beautiful dwelling”.

The combined total of her estate came in at worth more than £150,000 in total, with the scam to go down in history as “one of many UK’s largest elder fraud instances” on record.

On Wednesday, February 4, Mr and Mrs Walker, of Halesowen in the West Midlands were both sentenced to jail at Wolverhampton Crown Court. Additionally, they were each ordered to pay £30,000 in costs. Slaney-Summers, of Northfield, Birmingham, was previously caged for five-and-a-half years after all three were convicted of fraud.

The court heard on Wednesday that the “grasping” three took advantage of the isolated woman and her embattled cousin, who suffers with agoraphobia.

During sentencing, Judge John Butterfield KC said: “This was a state of affairs which offered itself to you, and also you reacted with greed somewhat than with concern or honesty.”

He said Miss Barnsley’s relative Verna Woolley’s illness made visiting difficult, but she did what she could to keep in touch with her cousin. He added that “deliberate steps” were taken to make it even more difficult to contact Miss Barnsley at the facility, with her cousin told she could only contact her via a landline.

Prosecutor Mark Jackson told the court that Miss Barnsley’s only living relative and next of kin was, in fact, her cousin Verna Woolley, who had been adopted into the family. Their contact ‘diminished significantly’, however, when Miss Barnsley entered the care home.

Mr Jackson said: “Miss Barnsley clearly grew to become extra remoted from her each day connections locally.”

Miss Barnsley’s only surviving relative, her cousin Verna Woolley, knew something was wrong when she read her supposed last will and testament. In the document, the 85-year-old supposedly called Ms Woolley her ‘adopted cousin’; something the pensioner had never done before.

Her suspicions led to her filing a complaint, which led to an investigation by council bosses, which led to them uncovering the scam.

In addition, Slaney-Summers helped herself to around £6,000 from Miss Barnsley’s bank account by using her card.

The judge added: “Miss Woolley smelled a rat from the outset. She was fobbed off, however not purchased off.”

Defence lawyer Henry Skudra blamed Slaney Summers as the one who “was the driving pressure behind what was happening.”

He stated:”The Walkers had been concerned within the latter levels and weren’t concerned within the forgery of the need. Mercifully, Miss Barnsley was not conscious of what had occurred. Both the defendants are of fine character. Each of them have led innocent lives earlier than what was somewhat an opportunist crime. Decades of exhausting work and reputations ruined.”

Mr Skudra said Mrs Walker had worked in the care industry for 52 years and had been a carer for her husband.

He added that both the Walkers had health issues recently, with Mr Walker hospitalised nine times in 2025. He had also recently had an operation which had resulted in his bowel and intestine removed.

The married couple will now spend the following three years behnd bars for fraud. Slaney-Summers, of Northfield, Birmingham, had already been jailed for a five-and-a-half yr time period in October.