Shropshire pair deny £9,000 theft from grandmother
A Shropshire husband and his wife cleaned out his grandmother's bank account to pay their own debts, a court heard.
Richard and Lorraine Griffiths also left the 86-year-old pensioner with a £3,000 credit card debt, a jury was told.
Shrewsbury Crown Court heard yesterday that the defendants knew the PIN number for Moira Griffiths' bank card and made dozens of transfers to their own account. The couple, of Cordwell Park in Wem, deny two charges of stealing up to £9,000 from Mrs Griffiths on various dates between December 2012 and January 2014.
The jury was told Mrs Griffiths' health and understanding had diminished since the alleged offences were reported to police and she was not well enough to be at court.
Mr Mohammed Hafeez, prosecuting, said two statements made to police by Mrs Griffiths two years ago would be read to the jury in which she says she did not consent for the money to be taken from her accounts.
Mr Hafeez alleged the defendants stole no more than £6,000 from the victim's Lloyds TSB account and no more than £3,000 from an M&S credit card. The victim is Richard Griffiths' grandmother and she had virtually brought him up from the age of 16 after he fell out with his father.
Mr Hafeez said Griffiths, 35, and his wife, 33, began having financial difficulties in 2012.
The jury was told the couple had withdrawn cash using the credit card and had transferred money from the Lloyds account to their own joint account using telephone banking. Mr Hafeez said Mrs Griffiths began to realise she was getting into debt and her account had been "cleaned out".
By December 2013 all the money from the Lloyds account had gone – about £8,000 in total – and the account was overdrawn.
The prosecution claims dozens of cash withdrawals were being made from the credit card leaving a debt of more than £3,000. In January 2014 the pensioner confronted her grandson and he urged her not to tell the police or his estranged father.
After their arrest in February 2014, the defendants admitted accepting the money, but claimed they had been given it and it was intended as loans that they would repay.
The trial continues.
