Cleaner who stole from woman aged 74 jailed

Elaine Goddard helped herself to cheques from the 74-year-old, whose mental health was deteriorating, making them out to herself or in one case her son, Carmel Pearson prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

Then, after her dishonesty was discovered and she no longer worked for the victim, she returned one night and burgled the home in Wakefield. She would have gone in on a second occasion but the locks had been changed preventing her, she said.

Goddard, 36 of Warren Avenue, Portobello, Wakefield, admitted four charges of fraud, two of theft, one of burglary and an attempted burglary.

Jailing her Judge Rodney Grant said they were mean and despicable offences. “You were trusted by the victim to work in her house and you were paid by her to do so, but you breached that trust and did so because of the mental condition of the victim and that is in my view an aggravating feature.”

Miss Pearson told the court the offences happened between March 24 and October 29 last year.

In June, the victim asked her nephew to check her finances and he became suspicious when he saw Goddard had given his aunt a cheque for £1,700 which she indicated was to repay a loan made to her by the pensioner but the cheque had never been cleared.

He discovered in March a cheque was cashed made out to Goddard for £3,000. A further cheque was later cashed for £1,000 emptying her account, two cheques one for £2,000 and another in her son’s name for £500 had not cleared.

The nephew was so concerned he installed a CCTV camera at the back of his aunt’s property and at 2.40am on October 11 it captured Goddard arriving at the house, using the back door and leaving 10 minutes later.

He reported the matter changing the locks which prevented her entering on a second occasion.

John Wilkinson for Goddard, said she was having difficulty in a relationship at that time and had debts of £21,000. She anticipated a jail sentence for what she had done.