• March 28, 2024
 Unscrupulous Attorney Jailed For Abusing Her Position

Unscrupulous Attorney Jailed For Abusing Her Position

An attorney entrusted with settling the financial affairs of two people she had known for over 20 years has been jailed for abusing her position and stealing over £75,000 between 2013 and 2017.

Monica Bailey was deemed ‘wicked’ and ‘greedy’ as she was sentenced to two years in prison for abusing her power of attorney position.

Following the decline of Ms Leadley’s health in 2013, where she was forced to enter a residential care home, Bailey was given power of attorney over the 80-year-olds finances.

Amongst her responsibilities as Court of Protection representative, Bailey, who lived next door to the vulnerable Ms Leadley for 20 years, was asked to ensure all care fees were paid each month alongside any other outstanding credit liabilities.

Instead, Bailey pilfered and exhausted the accounts, spending the money on settling her own finances, taxing and insuring her car, buying furniture and enjoying the benefits of 11 payments worth of direct debits to Sky.

Bailey also used her plundered and illicit gains to fund a deposit on a new home whilst her oblivious benefactor spent the remainder of her life living in old clothes.

Four months prior to Ms Leadley’s death in 2017, employees of the care home tipped off the relevant authorities, claiming the woman in their care did not have clothes of her own to wear and was not being provided for by her attorney.

In total, Ms Leadley’s estate was defrauded of more than £32,000. Because the majority of care fees were deferred as Bailey used the money to fund her own lifestyle, proceeds from the sale of the deceased’s house had to be used to pay the outstanding balance.

Running parallel to this abuse, Bailey was made joint executor of Ms Leadley’s younger nephew, Mr Quick’s, Will. Bailey had known Mr Quick for years and was entrusted with the task of ensuring his final wishes were enacted following the news that he was dying of a brain tumour.

Despite bequeathing many assets, including a Rockingham Breakfast Set and multiple original watercolour and oil paintings to the Victoria & Albert Museum, Bailey swiped the belongings and sold them at auction.

The other assets and money destined to be split between six charities were also usurped by the unscrupulous thief, totalling a theft worth in excess of £40,000.

Whilst £75,541 was stolen throughout the abuses, the legacy impact and inconvenience to the estates was just as severe.

Unfortunately, these cases are far from isolated instances of fraud as the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) have dealt with an influx of cases concerning attorneys and deputies, in trusted positions, exploiting the people they should be protecting from financial harm.

The Government carried out almost 50% more investigations concerning abuse complaints regarding lasting powers of attorney (LPA) in 2018.

In total, the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) received 5,245 claims that attorneys were abusing their donor’s finances last year – this is more claims of abuse than the OPG has ever had to deal with.

Richard Reed, representing the defence for Bailey, said:

“She is profoundly sorry that she has abused the trust and friendship of Mr Quick and Ms Leadley who she had known for 20 years.”

Judge Sean Morris, presiding Judge on the case, commented:

“You were trusted by two people to look after their estates (but you) fleeced them. One of these was a gentleman who… trusted you to make sure that his dying wishes were followed; that his precious possessions went to places where the public could enjoy them; that money went to the charities that were close to his heart.”

Should more be done to protect vulnerable people from abuse at the hands of the people they trust more than any other?

Martin Parrin