Disgrace of Pc who preyed on frail pensioner

IT was a call to investigate a routine burglary that led to the unmasking of police officer Jonathan Webb as a fraudster who stole thousands of pounds from a vulnerable 94-year-old woman.
Jonathan Webb at Leeds Crown Court. Picture: Ross Parry AgencyJonathan Webb at Leeds Crown Court. Picture: Ross Parry Agency
Jonathan Webb at Leeds Crown Court. Picture: Ross Parry Agency

The 45-year-old Pc with South Yorkshire Police, who was yesterday jailed for six years at Leeds Crown Court, went to the report of break-in on November 9 last year.

A security box found near the scene which contained several envelopes full of cash was handed to the experienced officer by a neighbour, but when it was later passed back to its owner some money was missing.

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When the box’s owner called police days later to report her suspicions, Webb, a father-of-five, contacted her and warned her that her neighbour was under suspicion for the theft of £1,000 and 500 US Dollars from the box, adding that he was due to be formally interviewed.

As the court heard yesterday, it was actually Webb himself who had stolen the money. He later admitted he blamed the neighbour, who has a heart condition, to deflect attention from himself.

Though Webb returned the money later, claiming he had found it after putting pressure on the entirely blameless neighbour, a formal complaint from the security box’s owner led to the police officer being arrested and his vehicle searched.

And the documents found in Webb’s car, including a forged will and banking paperwork, were used to prove he had fleeced a vulnerable 94-year-old widow out of nearly £23,000 over six months.

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Leeds Crown Court was told he had first came into contact with the woman after volunteering to attend a local hospital where she had fallen in June last year. In actions that his former colleagues say have made him “an utter disgrace to the uniform”, Webb gained access to her bank accounts and began to help himself to her money.

He closed a Scottish Widow account in her name and transferred £18,617 to an account he had access to. He then made daily purchases or withdrawals of between £100 and £250 to an eventual value of £4,855.35 from the pensioner’s Natwest account.

Using her Santander account he ordered a cash card and set up internet banking, before making withdrawals totalling £16,710. Webb also set up online banking on a separate account and bought ten items from the website Amazon, including a Kindle and garden tools, for £1,360.17.

As well as arranging to give himself power of attorney over her affairs, he create a new forged version of her will, which if accepted would have made him beneficiary of the majority of her £400,000 estate and deprived several charities of tens of thousands of pounds.

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Police investigating Webb also discovered he had stolen World War Two medals from another home after being called to a burglary there in 2012.

In interviews he claimed he started visiting the elderly widow “for welfare reasons” but ended up accessing her accounts for his own personal gain. He said his thefts got “stupidly out of control” as he took advantage of a “ready supply of money”.

In a victim statement read out in court, Webb’s elderly victim said she did not fully understand why the officer stole from her and the incident had made it hard for her to trust anyone. Alisha Kaye, prosecuting, said: “This defendant preyed upon her vulnerability. She trusted him as a friend and it makes her worried whether she can trust other people.”

Webb resigned his position as a police constable in May. Sam Green, mitigating, told the court he had twice “taken preparatory steps” to take his own life. He added that his 10-year-old daughter is also suffering anxiety and depression because of her fears of what will happen to him in prison.

He said Webb had been “relentlessly punishing himself” over his actions but hoped to be an “asset to the community he has so disgracefully let down” on release from prison.