Care worker jailed for defrauding Acocks Green disabled woman

Aug 8 2009 by Mark Cowan, Birmingham Mail

After being granted control of the finances to arrange her own care, she employed Bailey to look after her, eventually becoming “very dependent on her”, he said.

The court heard Bailey exploited that dependence. Between 2003 and 2006 she fraudulently filled in timesheets in her husband’s name for care work he had never done.

Police found Bailey had falsified a mortgage application, leaving Mrs Simons with a debt of £27,835 which she had been forced to pay for.

The court accepted some of the money was used to buy things for Mrs Simons and had not been spent on “lavish lifestyles”.

Bailey, of Rathbone Road, Smethwick, pleaded guilty to four counts of false accounting, obtaining a money transfer by deception and four counts of acquiring, using and possessing criminal property.

Lee Masters, defending her, said she had lost her good name and the possibility of obtaining further work as a carer.

Timothy Harrington, defending Paul Bailey, a qualified staff nurse, said he had played a lesser role in the fraud led by his wife and had expressed concern over it.

He was ordered to do 120 hours’ community service and given a one-year jail term, suspended for two years, after admitting possessing criminal property in the couple’s joint bank accounts.