Dad’s £50,000 spent by ‘in debt’ daughter

7:00pm Tuesday 25th July 2006

A WOMAN used her parents' names to run up debts of £50,000 and the first they knew was when bailiffs tried to re-possess her father's home.

Caroline Smith, 26, forged signatures on bogus mortgage applications to get £28,000 credit during a 12-month spree of deception.

The defendant intercepted documents warning her father that his home in Accrington Road, Hapton, was in jeopardy unless he met the repayments.

Mr Smith knew nothing of the scam or what was going on when returned from work and found it being repossessed and his daughter gone, Burnley Crown Court.

Smith, who had never been in trouble before, sobbed in the dock as a judge told her the final day of reckoning had come and jailed her for eight months.

He said Smith had wanted a lifestyle she couldn't afford but the most disquietening aspect of the case was that Smith had repeatedly lied to her parents, particularly her father.

Judge Wright added: "You are their daughter. Whatever you may do, they love you for all your faults."

The defendant admitted three charges of obtaining money transfers by deception and two counts of obtaining property by deception and had been committed for sentence by magistrates. Emma Kehoe, prosecuting, said Smith was living with her father and in August 2001 he acted as guarantor for an £8,000 loan for a car though she couldn't drive.

The court also heard: l In April 2002, the defendant applied for a £17,000 mortgage with Cedar Holdings, which later became Black Horse, in her parents' names.

l In November 2002 she applied for a further loan of £5,000, securing it on her parents' address.

l In February 2003 she obtained another £6,000 against her parents' property.

l She also got a Barclays Mastercard in her father's name and spent £1,018.

l In March she obtained a Visa card in her father's name, ran up a debt of £1,470.88 and had repaid £50.

Mrs Kehoe said Smith was arrested in March of this year in Macclesfield and told police the debts had got out of control. The defendant had applied for a total of £28,000, but with interest and insurance she had taken out, the outstanding amount owed was £48,342.

The court was told the possession order on Mr Smith's home had been set aside until the conclusion of the defendant's case.

Hugh Barton, defending, said Smith had always worked and her current employers described her as conscientious, professional and hard-working.

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