A FRAUDSTER who took more than £76,000 from her elderly mother was jailed yesterday and told she had betrayed the trust of her family.

Susan Havard of Farmers Close, Witney was given responsibility for her mum’s money when she was moved to a care home but instead spent it on a £5,000 holiday and paying off her mortgage.

The 50-year-old looked stunned yesterday when Judge Ian Pringle handed her a 15-month prison sentence, bursting into tears as she was taken down to the cells.

Prosecutor Matthew Walsh said Havard was granted lasting power of attorney for her mum Hilda Garrard after discussions with her brothers Simon and Andrew.

He told Judge Pringle that between February 1, 2012 and July 31, 2013 she abused her position of trust to make repeated withdrawals of between £500 and £10,000 from her mother’s bank account.

Mr Walsh said the money was intended to be spent on Mrs Garrard’s care home fees but her daughter “frittered it away” paying off debts and living beyond her means.

He said her brother Andrew became suspicious in August 2014 after looking at his mother’s bank statements and when he confronted his sister she admitted taking the money.

Mr Walsh described how, in a victim personal statement, her brother was shocked at learning about the fraud and the size of the sums involved.

CORRECTION AND APOLOGY: In this story about fraudster Susan Havard we published a photograph of a woman who was not the defendant.
The photograph published was of Thames Valley Police officer Pc Elaine Stout, who was attending court as part of her duties and was not connected to the Havard case.
We apologise unreservedly to Pc Stout for this error.
Havard, aged 50, of Farmers Close in Witney, was jailed on Friday for 15 months after admitting a single count of theft.

Reading the statement he said: “I used to think of my sister as my best friend.

“We grew up together in Cumnor and we got together almost every week. We were a close family but we have begun to drift apart as a result of this.

“She never said sorry and never offered to pay the money back.”

Mr Walsh said the family felt “betrayed” by Havard’s crime but had chosen not to tell their mother prior to her death last year at the age of 83.

He said following the defendant’s guilty plea to a single count of theft she has now repaid £48,500 out of the £76,464.60 she withdrew.

Adrian Amer, defending, said his client had been left in “mental and psychological disarray” by what had happened and would struggle to cope with prison.

He said: “When she was interviewed by the police she made full admissions.

“It wasn’t necessarily frittering the money away. She and her husband were in massive amounts of debt and were struggling to pay her mortgage.

“The money was keeping her family afloat.”

Judge Pringle told Havard that the references from those who knew her showed why her family had placed such a high level of trust in her.

But he added: “You broke that trust. You broke the trust of the person who brought you into the world and the person for whom you had power of attorney.

“And you helped yourself to you mother’s money over a period of one-and-a-half years.

“The effect on your immediate and extended family has been devastating.”

Confiscation proceedings will now be carried out to recover the rest of the money.