Woman stole elderly friend's phone with photos of late husband then tried to cover tracks
A woman stole cash and gadgets containing sentimental photos from an elderly friend before trying to cover her tracks when she realised she had been caught on CCTV, a court was told.
Shrewsbury Crown Court heard that Donna Williams, 61, of Linley View Drive, Bridgnorth, who pleaded guilty to theft, had been regularly visiting the victim – who was in her late 80s – to do her hair.
It was while at the property, also in Bridgnorth, in September 2020 that she waited for the victim to go into the kitchen before opening a purse and stealing £60 of the £100 it contained.
Katie Fox, prosecuting, told the court that when the victim returned Williams told her how she had installed CCTV in her own home, at which point the home-owner said she also had CCTV in the living room.
Ms Fox said that footage from the CCTV showed that Williams had tried to access the victim's phone when she again left the room, but was unsuccessful and put it in her bag.
She also turned the CCTV camera around.
The pair then discussed the missing phone and Williams pretended to help look for it, at which point the victim said they could use her iPad to search for it – using the 'find my phone' feature.
The victim suggested Williams took the iPad in an attempt to find the phone, which she did.
After Williams had left the homeowner then realised, after discussions with another person, what had happened and looked at the CCTV footage – confirming her suspicions.
To compound matters Williams later returned the iPad but had wiped its data and changed its password.
The phone has never been recovered. Both contained irreplaceable photos of the victim's husband, who had died.
A statement read to the court on behalf of the victim said she had suffered "unbearable anxiety" since the incident and felt like she was being driven from her own home.
Danny Smith, mitigating, said that Williams had entered a "timely guilty plea" adding that she is a lady of previous good character whose actions had been driven by credit card debt.
Urging Judge Peter Barrie not to send the defendant to jail, he added: "The risk to the public is simply not there. At the time of the offence she was in a considerable amount of debt – £25,000 of credit card debt, and she has since got a grip of that."
Sentencing, Judge Barrie said: "You became a trusted friend of the victim, welcomed into her house every week to do her hair, to stop for a chat, to befriend her, and you repaid that from her by committing this offence in which first of all you went to her purse and took £60 in cash.
"Secondly you picked up her telephone and took it away. You pretended to be looking for it when she noticed it was missing and got into a conversation about CCTV in her sitting room, turned the cameras to face away and you took away her iPad and wiped it of its contents for fear it may be linked to the CCTV, and to disguise what you had done."
Judge Barrie added that the impact on the victim had been "devastating", and that she had become "anxious and distressed" at the breach of trust.
Williams was given a 10 month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and will have to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.
