A woman who stole more than £16,000 from her housebound grandmother and spent it on a month-long shopping spree has been given a suspended prison sentence. Molly Elizabeth Kelly, 24, from Southport, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday (November 3) for sentencing after admitting the theft.
The court heard that Kelly had been living with her 78-year-old grandmother to care for her, and used her bank cards to spend thousands of pounds on shopping. She took money on a daily basis between October and November 2024, claiming she could not remember how she spent the savings, which her grandmother had received following the death of her husband.
Grandmother left 'extremely distressed'
Ian Hopkins, prosecuting, said: "Her grandmother is 78. She was not in good health; she was housebound at the time. The defendant was living with her as she was caring for her, and that is in fact how she gained access to her grandmother's funds."
He added that the grandmother was "extremely distressed" and had gone to a lot of trouble speaking to the bank to try to get her money back, with police assisting. She did not wish to provide a victim statement.
The court also heard that Kelly had one previous conviction for theft from her employer in 2023, for which she received a conditional discharge.
Judge criticises 'shopping bonanza'
Judge Simon Medland KC remarked: "If you steal £16,000 from your grandmother, that's an awful lot of money. In fact it's £570 a day that she has gone away with. What was she spending £570 a day on for a month?"
Lucy Moran, defending, said Kelly could not remember the exact purchases, maintaining they went towards "general shopping". She also noted that Kelly had been in hospital since October 29 and had a difficult upbringing, with her mother's addiction to class A drugs leading to a disrupted childhood.
Ms Moran revealed that Kelly continued to care for her grandmother, whose condition was rapidly declining, and that she was the only one her grandmother would allow to support her.
Suspended sentence and curfew
Passing sentence, Judge Medland said: "You are a young woman and you have had, in many ways, a difficult childhood. However, the one sole support that you had is your grandmother, and she loves you and you love her. That's why you were in a caring role for her. You took that relationship, crumpled it up and threw it away because you began to thieve from her."
Kelly, of Compton Road, Southport, received a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for 16 months. The judge also imposed a probation requirement and extended her curfew by three months, warning that further offences would leave the court with no option but to sentence her to prison.
