A vulnerable Leeds man was conned out of £10,000 by a member of staff at his care home and tragically died before seeing his offender brought to justice.
Richard Arey was a resident at Moorfield House Care Home for a number of years in 2018, when his daughter received a call from the home asking her to come in to talk about her dad. They told her he has OK, but that she needed to visit the home urgently.
When she did, they told her that the manager of the care home, Alison Bulmer, had been stealing from Mr Arey.
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She had already been fired and the police had been called. Mr Arey's daughter said: "We spent months and months meticulously combing through dad's bank account. We had to get all his backdated statements and everything like that.
"Originally, it was just over £10,000 and that's a conservative guess, it was just over £10,000 which had vanished from his bank account. Cash card transactions, online transactions, but mainly cash withdrawals."
While this was being dealt with by the police, Alison Bulmer continued to deny she had done anything wrong, says Mr Arey's daughter. She added: "She denied it, every interview she had she denied and denied.
"All these years she denied it and denied it. My dad, he was in the care home, it was a stroke, a major stroke that he had had. He'd lived there for years, he trusted her, he felt like she was his friend."
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For a while, Mr Arey would not talk to his daughter about it as he was so upset by what had happened. His daughter said she felt that Alison Bulmer had "groomed him" to take his money.
However, Mr Arey was keen to get justice for what had happened and would continuously ask his daughter when the trial would take place. He developed leukaemia in 2021, but kept up asking about the trial and the case until he passed away on New Year's Day this year.
A few days later, Alison Bulmer pleaded guilty. She was found guilty of two counts of fraud, one against Moorfield House Care Home and another against Richard Arey himself.
Mr Arey's daughter said: "It's despicable, and the way she portrayed herself to be, that she had two ill parents at the time. Both my parents died during this time and I didn't steal from anyone."
She received a suspended sentence for the crimes and thousands of pounds are still unaccounted for. "It's been a nightmare," his daughter said, "It's just been hanging over our heads for years, and the fact that dad passed before he got this.
"Part of me is thinking, I'm not sure dad would have been happy with it, yes she pled guilty but she didn't go to jail."
The judge gave Alison Bulmer a 16 month prison sentence, suspended for 24 months, as well as 100 hours of unpaid labour. She has also been banned from ever working in the care industry again.
Richard Arey's daughter also helps this situation raises awareness of the problems in the care system, while the vast majority of the carers she met were "like family" to her. She said: "People like her [Alison Bulmer], just make a mockery and tarnish the entire system."
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