In the Media

'Lady Glanister' care home boss stole £330,000 from care home residents to buy diamonds

PUBLISHED April 18, 2012
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Jenny Glanister, 51, turned to crime after becoming hooked on a television jewellery shopping channel.

Glanister worked as a finance manager responsible for two care homes treating adults with learning difficulties.

Between 2004 and 2010 she stole a total of £338,805 and used the name Lady Glanister on the shopping channel to lavish herself with diamond jewellery.

Glanister was jailed for 32 months on Tuesday after she admitted to eight counts of theft, fraud and false accounting at Northampton Crown Court.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Fowler told her: "This is effectively theft and a breach of trust

"You pleaded guilty to obtaining over a third of a million pounds from your employer.

"The victim of this is Oakfield home, a care home for adults with learning difficulties.

"You were aware of precisely what you were doing and precisely what consequences there would be. "

Judge Fowler added: "As for accepting responsibility for what she's done, I can see she has sought to blame others rather than taking responsibility herself.

"The problems is, she seems to suggest this was brought about by others for not treating her properly.

"She was responsible for wholesale plundering involving a vast number of transactions."

The court heard Glanister was trusted with the accounts of Oakfield Ltd, which runs two care homes in Northamptonshire.

But she used her role to funnel cash from the care homes and it's residents into her own bank account.

When officers swooped on her home in the village of Whiston, Northants., they discovered 15 fur coats, racks of designer clothes, unopened bottles of champagne and a receipt for a £3,400 cruise.

They also discovered she was styling herself as 'Lady Glanister' and spent a staggering £233,000 with TV shopping channel 'Rocks and Co' on 180 separate items of jewellery including an £18,000 diamond broach.

Some of the packets of jewellery had been addressed to "Lady Glanister".

The court heard Glanister, who now lives in Great Billing, Northants., was in charge of Oakfields accounts for its homes in Easton Maudit, near Wellingborough, and Yardley Hastings, Northampton.

She was trusted with debit cards, petty cash and residents' personal finances.

When she left the company in 2010 her successor discovered that Glanister stole from the company, used its accounts to pay her heating bills and petrol for her car, inflated her salary and paid herself for extra hours not worked and then forged spread sheets to cover her tracks.

Kathryn Howarth, prosecuting, said a new accountant found "serious and alarming anomalies" in the firm's accounts.

It was found that £72,923 had been taken from the home's petty cash, £227,000 in cheques cashed from the home's accounts and £17,272 by claiming for additional hours that she had not worked.

More than £2,000 was charged to Oakfield for the cost of fuel to her home and £17,000 to the residents' personal accounts.

Glanister also charged tights and spray tan to the residents' accounts.

Families of some adults at the home reported difficulties in obtaining money from their relatives' accounts and complaints were made.

Miss Howarth said Glanister also stole from residents with disabilities.

She added: "This concerns serious crimes perpetrated by the defendant in gross breach of trust."

Toby Long, mitigating, said Glanister pocketed the cash because she felt "undervalued".

He said: "She felt nobody cared for her and she felt worthless and in her words 'nobody was there for me'

"The money was not needed and to some extent it was stealing for comfort or control in which she perhaps lacked the ability to control her life."

Relatives of Ganister's victims branded her "ghastly"

Joan Bohl, whose disabled daughter Alexa was at one of the homes, said: "She's ghastly and what she has done defies description.

"My daughter is 32 but she has a mental age of 18 months.

"When her carer asked for some of her money to buy her a toothbrush Jenny Glanister said there was none available.

"In the meantime this creature was buying 15 furs and blowing £230,000 on the shopping channel."

Speaking after the case, a spokesman for Northamptonshire County Council, said: "This is not a council-owned care home and we do not employ the staff there.

"However, it is one of the many care homes where we place people who need care.

"A separate complaint was made to the council in 2008 about the home which was resolved through the local government ombudsman.

"We agreed with the ombudsman's findings and £2,000 compensation was paid to the individual we had placed there and his family.

"We take these types of issues very seriously and constantly review the outcomes from our monitoring."

All the recovered items will be auctioned with the proceeds going the care homes.

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