A woman impersonated her husband’s voice to swindle almost £100,000 in a huge mortgage and pension fraud scheme.
Karen Lawrence, 66, previously pleaded guilty to forming a fraudulent scheme to scam her husband John, according to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).
Lawrence, of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, phoned up a mortgage firm and a pension company to illegally obtain £99,659.12, prosecutors said.
Ayr Sheriff Court heard that the 66-year-old had put on a male voice to trick staff into believing it was her husband.
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She was handed down a community payback order and ordered to perform 300 hours of unpaid work within 12 months on Tuesday.
Lawrence has also placed under supervision for two years and was given a six-month curfew order, in place from 8pm to 6am.
The Procurator Fiscal for North Strathclyde, Anne Marie Hicks, said the pensioner "committed a serious betrayal of trust in deceiving her husband".
Ms Hicks said: “She went to extreme and elaborate lengths to fraudulently obtain significant amounts of money which did not belong to her.
Ayr Sheriff Court heard that the 66-year-old had put on a male voice to trick staff
|“As prosecutors, we understand the impact on victims of this type of offending and are fully committed to tackling financial crime of this kind.”
The 66-year-old has also been banned from contacting or attempting to contact her husband for 10 years.
Lawrence made three calls to the mortgage company in July 2019 and pretended to be her husband to withdraw money out of the house’s value in his name, prosecutors said.
A payment of £54,557.47 was then paid into the couple’s joint account, before £54,000 was transferred out of that account between August 13 and 16 into various other accounts.
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Lawrence made three calls to the mortgage company in July 2019 to withdraw money out of the house’s value in his name
|GETTY
She then proceeded to use similar tactics to swindle £45,101.68 from her husband’s pension.
Lawrence made six calls to the pension firm while impersonating her partner.
Lewis Kennedy KC, defending, insisted Lawrence was "nevertheless a victim" alongside her husband.
He said: "Alcohol abuse and feeling isolated made her more susceptible to the romance scam.
"She expresses significant regret for this offence and the significant impact on the victim, her husband, and substantial shame for the scam."
However, Sheriff Siobhan Connelly said: "You are to blame for your own behaviour, but clearly you were under the influence of someone else.
"You are responsible for your own conduct and the harm caused, no doubt, to your estranged husband. You completely betrayed his trust.
"In this deliberate, sustained scheme, you impersonated your husband to re-mortgage the home - how you thought you would do that without your husband finding out is not clear.
"You lost a lot of your own money and are in significant debt.
"You, in the course of this, have lost the relationship with your husband and reputation as well."
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