Select a region
A mother and daughter, who together committed a "wicked fraud" on an elderly man, cheating him out of thousands of pounds, have been given more time to pay him back.
Amanda Joan Louis (52) and her daughter, Shannon Stephanie Bellas (27), befriended the 83-year-old and borrowed more than £17,000 from him over the course of 20 months.
They had repeatedly sent him messages asking to borrow money for "emergencies" or medical bills – always promising to pay him back but never intending to.
Over the course of the 20 months Bellas received £11,317 from the man and Louis received £6,127.
They were convicted of fraud by the Royal Court in September last year, but spared a prison sentence so that they could continue working and earn money to pay the victim back. Bellas was ordered to pay him £400 per month and Louis had to pay £350 per month.
Pictured: Shannon Stephanie Bellas and Amanda Joan Louis were sentenced in the Royal Court in September.
Both were also sentenced to 240 hours of community service.
Jurats at the Royal Court on Friday "reluctantly" agreed the women's request to reduce their monthly repayments. Bellas will now pay £250 per month and Louis will pay £200.
Advocate Nicholas Mière, representing both women, explained that Bellas had lost her job, while Louis had been working as a cleaner but had been signed off work after injuring her knee and is now only working reduced hours.
Lieutenant Bailiff Anthony Olsen said that the elderly man had been relying on his savings and a small pension for his retirement and had ended up giving much of his money to the two fraudsters.
He told them: "Your victim could ill afford to suffer these losses. This was a mean and nasty exploitation and a wicked fraud."
He added that the court had put the interests of the victim first in sparing them prison in order to let them earn the money to repay him, but noted that the payments to date had been "sporadic and inadequate".
However he added: "We reluctantly grant the appeal."
The women were ordered to return to court on 28 July and warned that if they were found not to be paying the new rates they could face prison.
The other Jurats presiding were Kim Averty and David Le Heuzé.
Mum and daughter scammed pensioner out of £17k with fake emergencies
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.