'Spiteful' mum stole daughters' £50k inheritance

A mother who stole £50,000 of inheritance from her two daughters out of “greed and spite” has been jailed.

Katherine Hill, 53, from Alltwen in Pontardawe, Neath Port Talbot, and her 93-year-old father Gerald Hill from Fairwood in Swansea were found guilty of fraud by abuse of power after a trial last month.

At a Swansea Crown Court hearing on Friday, they were sentenced to 30 months in prison and a 12-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, respectively.

One of their victims, Jessica Thomas, said it was difficult to process that her “own flesh and blood” would do that to her.

The judge, Recorder Greg Bull KC, described the defendants as “thoroughly dishonest people”.

The court heard the money was left to Katherine Hill’s two daughters, Jessica and Gemma Thomas, by their grandmother, Margaret Hill, who died in 2013.

Katherine Hill also received inheritance of about £40,000 from her late mother’s house.

James Hartson, prosecuting, said the sisters’ money was supposed to be held in a trust until they turned 25, with the defendants as trustees.

Mr Hartson said the girls, just 15 and 12 at the time, were vulnerable as “they had no control over it”.

Between March 2016 and March 2017, the account where the money was held was emptied in 10 withdrawals, with £35,000 withdrawn in three transactions alone, he said.

The defendants’ actions came to light in 2018 when Gemma Thomas wanted to access some of the money to use as a house deposit. A civil investigation was initially launched before the family contacted the police.

The court heard Katherine Hill asked her 93-year-old father to help her take the money, and that Gerald Hill “was recruited and exploited by Katherine Hill for the purposes of carrying out the fraud”.

Mr Hartson said Gerald Hill “was clearly involved through exploitation or coercion” by his daughter, and his culpability was “much less”.

He said an initial attempt by the victims to recover the money through insurers failed “because of the submissions made in writing by the defendants” that they had already received it.

The money is now unaccounted for and a proceeds of crime act will take place to recover it.

He added: “The loss of the victim’s inheritance continues to have a serious detrimental effect on them.”

In a statement read in court, Gemma Thomas said the crime had caused her a “great deal of emotional and financial stress” and she suffered from “anxiety in every area” of her life.

She said it had left her “in a lot of debt”.

Jessica Thomas, 21, said: “It’s difficult to understand how my own family can cause such harm to their own flesh and blood."

She said she had suffered “severe mental trauma” and needed counselling during her teenage years.

Speaking to BBC Wales after the sentencing, Jessica Thomas added she felt “relieved”.

“It’s been going on for so long, but hopefully now we can move forward. I don’t think she’ll ever be sorry for what she’s done,” she said.

Jessica said she was also “disgusted” by her grandfather’s actions.

“He’s just brushed me and my sister off like we don’t exist. To hear that is obviously hard but it speaks to his character.”

Matt Murphy, defending Katherine Hill, told the court she had no previous convictions and was trusted to oversee “thousands of accounts” in her previous role working in a high street bank.

Harry Dickens, on behalf of Gerald Hill, said his client was “not likely to reoffend, he is at the end of his life”.

Mr Dickens added: “He has no family that will speak to him. He is alone. He has no one.”

Addressing Katherine Hill, the judge said he was satisfied she was the instigator of the “scam” who was “so annoyed that your daughters received more money than you, that you took their inheritance”.

“You did it in greed and spite”, he said, adding she used the money “as a weapon against your own daughters”.

“I can’t imagine a more cynical breach of trust than this,” he said.

Hill kissed her father on the cheek before being sent down.