Trading standards team hailed by judge after care home fraud exposed

Jamiel Slaney-Summers, who used to run Amberley Care Home in Brierley Hill, helped to draft a fake will for Rita Barnsley which named her as a significant beneficiary.

The 65-year-old also took £6,000 from the vulnerable pensioner by using her bank card to make regular withdrawals to fund a gambling addiction.

Slaney-Summers, of Raven Hays Road, Birmingham, was found guilty by a jury of fraud and theft in October. She appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday, where she was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

Married couple Graham and Lyn Walker, who owned the care home, were also found guilty of fraud and had been due to be sentenced alongside Slaney-Summers.

That will now take place at a later date as Mr Walker is currently ill in hospital, the court heard.

His Honour Judge John Butterfield KC called Slaney-Summers' offending "shocking” and “outrageous” and commended trading standards officers Kuldeep Maan and Mark Beesley for their work in bringing the case to court.

The prosecution is one of the biggest recorded convictions for elder fraud in the country.

Ms Barnsley moved into the Stourbridge Road care home after becoming unwell in May 2020. The 85-year-old’s last will and testament was a “sham” with different handwriting and coloured pens used throughout – and named Lyn Walker and Slaney-Summers as executors.

They stood to benefit to the tune of around £175,000 from the plans laid out in the will, prosecutors told the court.

An investigation was launched by the trading standards team after Ms Barnsley’s only surviving relative, her cousin Verna, made a complaint.

Councillor Phil Atkins, cabinet member responsible for trading standards, said:

“This is a fantastic result. A lengthy custodial sentence is a fitting punishment for a crime which will be viewed as abhorrent by most right-minded people.

“Slaney-Summers was guilty of an horrific abuse of trust and was fully intent on fleecing this poor, vulnerable woman of every penny she had worked her whole life to earn.

“The fact she was not allowed to get away with it is down to the lady’s family and a long and painstaking investigation by our superb trading standards team.

“I am pleased their efforts were acknowledged by the judge today, for this case would have never seen the courtroom had they not got involved.

“This case is a warning that as a council we will not tolerate elder abuse.”

Graham and Lyn Walker will be sentenced on a date to be fixed by the court.