A MOTHER-of-two pocketed £95,000 which should have gone towards looking after her vulnerable father at a care home.
Instead Janice Knight, 65, of Ridgeway, West Parley, spent cash paying off a mortgage on a second home in Weymouth, servicing credit card debts and buying a second hand car. Southampton Crown Court heard that in 2009 her father William Harris, in his 80s, began suffering from dementia and moved to the Engleburn Care Home in Barton-on-Sea. Prosecutor Tim Moores said Knight received more than £35,000 with the expectation some of it would go towards paying for her dad’s expenses.
She also made regular withdrawals of his pension credits obtaining more than £8,000. In 2010 Knight was granted power of attorney and Mr Harris’s home in Dunstable was sold for £79,000, of which £27,000 went to Dorset County Council to reimburse them over fees.
Mr Moores said the total sum involved in the case amounted to £94,323. Mr Harris died in 2012. In mitigation, James Newton-Price said Knight paid regular visits to her father and there was no suggestion she had been not been concerned about his welfare.
Knight admitted abusing her position of trust and making a false representation to the care home. She received a two year suspended sentence and a 240 hour community work order.
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