Wick court fines fraudster who stole £14k from pensioner
An Orkney woman who cheated an elderly man out of £14,000 has been fined £2500.
It brought one of the longest-running criminal cases at Wick Sheriff Court, to an end, after three years yesterday.
The accused, Fiona Taylor, has since been repaying the money at the rate of £500 per month.
Sheriff Neil Wilson was advised, yesterday, by her solicitor, Sylvia Maclennan, that the entire amount she defrauded Albert Millington of, had been repaid and would be transferred to the executor of his estate in due course.
Taylor (66) was originally charged with defrauding the 88-year-old out of £40,000 but plea bargaining resulted in the figure being slashed.
The court heard, previously, that the accused got to know Mr Millington when she operated a taxi business in Wick and began to run him about. But she betrayed his friendship and induced hime to give her the £14,000, between December 2015 and July 2016. Taylor, then living in Glamis Road, Wick, gambled some of the money away.
Mr Millington went into a care home and subsequently died without receiving the cash he was due. Miss Taylor, who returned to her native Orkney, and is now living in Finstown, paid over a lump sum of £4,500 and the balance at the rate of £500 a month.
Taylor wasn't present when sentence was passed today, her presence was excused.
Sheriff Wilson said that she had deliberately defrauded a vulnerable person of a considerable amount of money and while she had repaid it, there had to be an element of punishment.
The case was plagued with delays. Initially, there were problems persuading Taylor to come to court to face the music and at one point a sheriff issued a warrant for her arrest.
Earlier, her legal representative withdrew and Miss Maclennan was 'parachuted' in to take over and start her defence to Taylor's not guilty plea, subsequently changed to one of guilty to the reduced charge.
Taylor will be paying her fine at the rate of £500 a month.