A woman who stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from an elderly woman with dementia to fund her lavish lifestyle has been jailed.
Krista Marie Pennington, 52, from Stretford, was found guilty of fraud by abuse of position at Minshull Street Crown court.
On Thursday 14 April 2016 she was jailed for three and a half years.
The court heard how in 2011 Pennington was made deputy to a family member’s estate after she was moved to a nursing home to be nearer to her family.
At the time she moved the victim’s finances were in a relatively healthy state, with substantial balances in numerous accounts.
Pennington was working at the Trafford Centre as a team leader when she was made deputy to the estate, but was fired soon afterwards and left unemployed.
Shortly after, her son approached her for a loan of £20,000 and, while she had initially intended to pay it back, this first break into the account sparked a spiral of misuse of the victim’s funds.
Pennington made cash withdrawals, paid debts, gave generous gifts, bought cars and bought camping equipment for holidays, all with the victim’s money.
In total Pennington used £209,391.24.
Detective Constable Neil Tate said: “This was a shameless abuse of trust on a vulnerable elderly woman who suffers from dementia.
“The victim was moved to the area to be closer to her family as her health deteriorated, only for Pennington to use her money to fund her own lifestyle.
“She used the money to buy cars, go on holidays and make shop purchases of tens of thousands of pounds with only a small percentage going to the victim.
“She even took jewellery from her home and sold it to a pawnbrokers.
“It is shocking that someone would treat a vulnerable family member in this way by taking enormous sums of money for their own gain, and Pennington is fully deserving of the jail sentence she received.
