Woman who stole her great grandmother's savings to feed her alcohol habit has been jailed

A woman who betrayed her great grandmother’s trust by stealing her savings has been jailed for her crimes.
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Tragically victim Olive Davies, from Leyland, did not get to see justice done as she passed away while the probe was taking place.

Martina Adams, 49, of Seven Stars Road, Leyland, claimed she had stolen the cash to fed a £50 a day alcohol habit.

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The pensioner’s tearful daughter Christine Heald, 58, read her late mum’s victim statement to Sessions House Court in an emotionally charged hearing in which Adams was jailed for a year.

In it, the pensioner had written: “I welcomed Martina into my house approximately 10 years ago as a cleaner.

“I considered her to be a close and trusted friend who I saw for an hour each morning.

“I then found out she had stolen the majority of my savings and it made me extremely upset that she could betray me in this way.”

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Prosecuting, Geoff Whelan said Olive put her trust in carer Martina Adams, who had been her home help for around a decade, and even regarded her as one of the family.

But Adams was secretly helping herself to cash withdrawals from her bank account, amounting to more than £8,000.

The heartbroken OAP’s health rapidly declined after the shocking discovery and she had to, against her wishes, have a social services package of care, with different people coming in four times a day.

Her distraught family say she was never the same again and she died just a few months after the trauma.

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Judge Simon Newell said: “ She was obviously in a vulnerable position.

“She trusted you and as her witness statement said, she treated you very much like a daughter. You were one of her main social and supportive contacts over two years or more.

“It was a very substantial position of trust you were in. I have taken into account this wasn’t a one off.

“She knew from July onwards last year exactly what you had done, and that meant the last nine months of her life were very, very distressing for her.”