THREE fraudulent carers have been ordered to pay back more than £171,000 in compensation to a bedridden widow who was ripped off to fund designer handbags and expensive jewellery.

Bradford Crown Court heard that the women’s victim, Audrey Hammond, now in her mid-90s, was “still very much with us”.

Stephen Wood, representing the Crown at a Proceeds of Crime Application hearing, agreed benefit figures for Lynda Mynott and mother and daughter, Wendy and Lisa Bell.

At a previous confiscation hearing, the court heard that co-accused Amanda Carroll and the Bells had expensive designer goods seized by the police when they were arrested.

Carroll, 45, of Park Avenue, Shipley, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison in February 2015 for defrauding Mrs Hammond, of Cracoe, near Skipton.

She benefited to the tune of £706,925 from her criminality but had just £2,917 of it left.

Yesterday, Judge Colin Burn ruled that Wendy Bell, 59, of Greenside Lane, Cullingworth, must hand over £139,000 out of her assets of £208,920.

She was previously jailed for three years and six months for fleecing Mrs Hammond.

Mr Wood said the confiscation money would be coming from Bell’s bank accounts and the sale of jewellery and handbags in the hands of the police.

The Crown had agreed to let Bell buy back three of the seized items, Mr Wood said.

Lisa Bell, 31, also of Greenside Lane, and Lynda Mynott, 62, of Garforth Road, Keighley, received suspended prison sentences in February, 2015.

Lisa Bell’s benefit from the fraud was set at £53,354 and her available assets were ruled to be £11,833.

Mynott benefited to the tune of £39,310 and her available assets were £21,021 held in two pension funds.

During the two and a half year fraud, Carroll and Wendy Bell recruited friends and family to become carers for wealthy Mrs Hammond, although they had not undergone checks with the Criminal Records Bureau.

When the police became involved, in September 2012, she was paying £35,000 every four weeks for her care.

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