A YOUNG carer who stole around £20,000 from his bedbound quadriplegic grandma has been locked up for 18 months.

Jamie Hutchinson, 20, started using 70-year-old Lynn Hall’s bank card after offering to help look after his relative at her Keighley home when she lost her husband in February last year.

After she set up a new account with Lloyds Bank, the amount of money in the account dropped from nearly £28,000 in March to just £8,000 in June.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, said the case was “as mean an offence of fraud as one could think of”.

Prosecutor Jayne Beckett told Bradford Crown Court that Hutchinson had volunteered to care for Mrs Hall four nights a week, and was given access to the bank card for her new account to pay for shopping for the house.

His spending only came to light on June 11 when Mrs Hall’s brother, Edmund Bland, opened one of her bank statements and noticed a number of “unusual” outgoings.

After drawing it to Hutchinson’s attention, the defendant said he would go to the bank and cancel the account, telling them “not to worry, you’ll get your money back”.

Mrs Beckett said the card was not cancelled, and two days later, Mrs Hall received a call from someone called “Fred at the fraud squad”.

She said there was doubts as to whether the investigator was bona fide, as he was “using phrases my husband used to use”.

Hutchinson wrote down a return number for the caller, but when Mr Bland tried to call back a few days later, the number had gone missing.

Mrs Beckett said the card was then cancelled, with Mrs Hall taken to the Keighley branch of Lloyds bank by her daughter, Hutchinson’s mother, to get a statement.

On June 22, the matter was discussed with Hutchinson by his family, but he denied the offences and he and his partner stayed with Mrs Hall that night before vanishing the following day.

The police were informed and started an investigation on June 25.

Mrs Beckett said Mrs Hall initially thought she had lost more than £21,000, but some statements had shown money being paid immediately back into the account.

The court heard that Hutchinson had moved to the Teesside area and had only been arrested after police checks were made when he applied for a local carer’s job.

When interviewed by police on October 29, he admitted the fraud, but said he had only taken around £10,000, telling officers he had used the money to repay debts to friends and to stay in hotels to “get away from the caring side of things”.

He also said he had gone to Teesside to get away from family and “let things calm down”.

While away from the Keighley area, Mrs Beckett said he texted his grandma with messages including: “I’m so sorry for what I did, I’ll pay back every penny”, and “hopefully one day you’ll forgive me and I’ll be able to come home, love you always”.

Stephen Wood, for Hutchinson, of Troutbeck Road, Redcar, said his client had moved to take up a new job and pay his grandma back, but had been unable to do so following his arrest.

He said he had references for his work in working with disadvantaged young people, and since his arrest had secured a full-time job as a sales assistant in a shop.

Mr Wood said that Hutchinson had been hit by the realisation his actions had “significantly, cruelly, and persistently” hurt his grandma, conduct which had a “deeply divisive effect” within the family.

“This was a 19-year-old boy who was absolutely terrified what was going to happen when his offending came to light,” he said.

He asked for the court to consider “exceptional” circumstances and suspend any custodial sentence, but Judge Thomas said Hutchinson must serve 18 months in a young offender institution.

He told him: “You seemingly had some ability in terms of caring, but you very quickly set about this fraud.

“Looking after her, you stole all that money from that vulnerable, frail old lady.

“Cruel is the sort of language that is appropriate.”

Stating that some of the money was spent on luxuries such as a spa trip, Judge Thomas added: “Clearly there was an abuse of trust in the position you were in.

“There was a serious detrimental effect on this lady, what else could it have been?

“This is a sentence that has to be served immediately, it is the only response the court can have.”