A woman is on trial accused of abusing her position of trust and treating her mother's money "as if it were her own".
Shirley Williams is alleged to have made unauthorised purchases with her mother's money and to have transferred money from her bank accounts while in charge of her finances. The 55-year-old denies any dishonesty, saying she only ever acted in her mother's best interest, and is on trial at Swansea Crown Court.
Background to the case
The court has previously heard that the defendant's father was responsible for all financial matters in the marriage up until his death, at which point Williams took over responsibility. Williams was later given power of attorney in regard to her mother.
It is the prosecution case that the defendant abused the trust placed in her over a five-year period, including by making multiple purchases on PayPal, using her mother's money to shop online with Ocado, taking out Netflix subscriptions, and making transfers of money into and between her seven bank accounts.
Prosecution's argument
Harry Dickens, prosecuting, told the court that there was a "blurring of the lines" between what was the defendant's money and what was her mother's money, and he said Williams had essentially treated her mother's accounts and money "as if it were her own". He said the defendant was "reckless" in the way she treated the money, and said she had not been acting in her mother's best interests and as a result the mother incurred losses "both big and small".
Mr Dickens pointed to movements of sums of money between various accounts and asked the jury whether there were "innocent" explanations - such as the evidence from the defendant that she had been moving money around to get the best rates of interest - or whether there was something more "sinister". And he asked the jury to consider whether a competent and honest attorney would have treated the victim's finances in the way the defendant did.
The barrister said the prosecution was not claiming that Williams never assisted her mother, and said it was accepted that there were transactions which were done with consent, but he invited the jury to "follow the money". He branded the defendant "a liar and an opportunist" who "used her mother's money without consent".
Defence response
Jon Tarrant, for Williams, said it was a "sad affair" when members of a family end up in court. He noted that the defendant's mother had been content to let her manage her finances and affairs for well over a decade even though his client had lived hundreds of miles away in Sussex, but he said there came a time when "things became fractious" in the family and as a result the defendant's sister started to carry out "her own investigation" into her mother's finances.
The barrister said that "taking a broad brush approach" to the many pages of bank statements before the court, there were more than 3,600 lines of transactions over the years but the prosecution were only claiming 102 as fraudulent.
He told the jury it may be that his client "had not been perfect" and perhaps could have kept better financial records over the years, but said the reality was she had always acted in her mother's best interests, and had not acted dishonestly.
Shirley Williams, of Trevaughan, Whitland, Carmarthen, denies five counts of fraud by abuse of position, and the trial before judge Christopher Vosper KC continues.
