A woman who stole nearly £75,000 from her grandad is just one of many criminals to have come before Liverpool's courts after committing crimes against family members.
Olivia Crutchley described her grandad as her best friend, but she conned him over the course of 18 months to fund her drug addiction. Crutchley, 23, bombarded the pensioner with a slew of fake emails purporting to be from lawyers and the Citizens Advice Bureau.
She had invented a legal battle with B&Q and was billing her grandad for supposed solicitors fees. She apparently attempted to sue her former employer, despite having never actually worked for the DIY giant.
READ MORE: Woman scammed her own grandad out of £75k
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Monday (February 27) Crutchley told her grandad that she had begun working for B&Q and was promoted to the position of assistant manager. However, she claimed that she had been left out of pocket due to extra training as part of this new role which was not paid for by the company.
This apparently included travel and accommodation expenses for sessions in Southport, Birmingham and London. Mr Crutchley was forwarded mocked up emails from her supposed supervisor in relation to these costs and those of purchasing her uniform.
Between December 2020 and June 2022, he would receive around 140 such emails - with others coming from the likes of solicitors and citizens advice staff. The OAP initially agreed to shell out £1,000 to cover these expenses.
Over the course of the scam, Mr Crutchley had transferred a total of £68,911.56 to his granddaughter and a further £6,057.30 to her partner. This resulted in an overall loss of £74,968.86.
Crutchley, who has no previous convictions, admitted fraud during an earlier hearing. Appearing in the dock wearing a black Fred Perry t-shirt and with her brown hair tied back, she was jailed for two years as a supporter wept in the public gallery.
Here, we list a number of people who have targeted their own families and have ended up in Liverpool's courts.
Nan catches her own grandson stealing from her on CCTV
A "cruel" thief stole nearly £8,500 from his own nan after she put a roof over his head.
Valerie Doyle, 77, who is partially sighted and has restricted mobility, gave Jordan Edwardson a place to live. She took him into her Southport home after he spent years in care because of his mum's drug abuse.
But he repaid her kindness by stealing bank cheques and trying to cash them in to buy crack cocaine and heroin. And after that failed - leading to a past conviction for fraud - Edwardson used her bank and credit cards 50 times.
Judge Neil Flewitt, QC, said: "It's hard to imagine anybody stooping lower than somebody who steals from his own grandmother. You've done it now not once, but twice."
Edwardson received 20 months in prison, suspended for two years, over the despicable cheque fraud in February 2018. In March 2020, he was jailed for two years.
Read the full story by clicking here.
Thief bought house in retired dad's name and left him with all the debt
A scammer who stole hundreds of thousands from her family left her dad saddled with a mortgage he didn’t ask for just as he started his retirement.
Clare Roughley subjected her parents, grandparents and even a woman she cared for to a vile campaign of theft over a number of years. The former bank employee was jailed back in October 2021 after admitting to using her insider knowledge to steal £325,000 from those who were trusted her.
She set up online access to the accounts of her dad, Raymond Roughley, her mum, Delyn Roughley, and her nan, Theresa Leyland. Over a number of years, she drained their life savings to fund her escalating gambling addictions, as well as stealing thousands from a woman she was caring for.
In May 2022, the 40 year old was back before a judge at Liverpool Crown Court to be sentenced for mortgage fraud carried out during the same period. Peter Hussey, prosecuting, told the court that during 2015 and 2016, the same period she was stealing from her parents, Roughley applied for and then took out a mortgage in her father’s name to buy the home where she and her partner were living.
He said the couple had been unable to secure approval for a loan to buy 123 Recreation Street in St Helens and Roughley then asked her dad to be a guarantor, to which he agreed. However, she then set about tricking solicitors and the bank, Santander, that her dad actually wanted to buy it and that she was just helping him with the financial process.
The mortgage was granted in 2016 and Roughley paid a £26,000 deposit to the bank. Mr Hussey said that money came from funds she had stolen from her mum and nan. Raymond Roughley’s name remains on the mortgage and he remains liable for the monthly repayments to clear the £50,000 debt.
He was unaware of the fact that he was technically the owner of the home until the wider thefts became known in 2020 as his daughter was making payments before then. In a short statement to the court, he said: “It has caused me so much upset and stress as well as costing me financially.”
Roughley, of HMP Drake Hall, was sentenced to 38 months in prison. However, that will be served concurrently with her other jail terms and means it will not affect her projected release from jail on licence in autumn 2024.
Read the full story by clicking here.
Son broke OAP mum's arm with her walking stick as she lay in bed
A man battered his 66-year-old mum with her own walking stick as she lay defenceless in bed.
John Skelton previously broke Hazel Skelton's jaw and was banned from her home after threatening to snap her back. But he moved into her Wirral address after his release from jail, in breach of a restraining order put in place to protect the OAP.
And when she refused to give him cash for booze, he split her head open - leaving a permanent scar - and broke her arm. Liverpool Crown Court heard Skelton was given the restraining order in September 2019, after a common assault on his mum.
Prosecuting in the 2020 trial Ray Smith said: "He lost his temper in the small hours of May 15. The defendant attacked his 66-year-old mother in her bed with her own walking stick."
He said the "sustained and repeated" assault caused a "large deep laceration" to her head; fractures to her rib, finger and arm; and bruises to the face. Mr Smith said the walking stick was broken in half and left covered in blood.
Skelton wouldn't let his mum call 999 and it was only when he fell asleep that she was able to leave and a neighbour rang the police. He was found on her bed and arrested but gave a mostly no comment interview, except for stating he had a drink problem and couldn't remember the incident.
Skelton denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent, but pleaded guilty on the opening day of a trial. He also admitted breaching the restraining order.
He has 34 previous convictions for 59 offences, including assault causing actual bodily harm in 1999 and 2006, the second of which he received an extended prison sentence for.
The judge jailed Skelton for 10 years, with an extended four years on licence, and imposed an indefinite restraining order. This means he will spend at least six years and eight months behind bars and only be released before the end of his sentence if a parole board considers he is no longer a risk.
Read the full story by clicking here.
Man who stole £14,000 from elderly father spared jail after promising to pay back money
A man who stole around £14,000 from his elderly father was spared jail after promising to pay the money back.
Kevin Bogle, 41, withdrew cash from the bank account of widowed 70-year-old David Bogle on 12 separate occasions. Liverpool Crown Court heard that Bogle, of Adelaide Road, Kensington, stole amounts ranging from £300 to £3,500 between May 2 and June 20, 2014.
His offending only came to light when his dad realised someone had applied for online banking in his name. When arrested by police, Bogle said: “I know I’ve done wrong. I had to take it.”
He wrote in a victim personal statement: “This incident has completely destroyed me.
“I can’t believe my own son would take from me all my money and leave me potentially facing financial difficulty.
“It’s the fact that someone so close can be so dishonest.”
Bogle, with a shaved head and wearing an Armani t-shirt and designer jeans in the dock, admitted 12 counts of dishonestly making a false representation. Judge Conrad ordered Bogle to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
Mum stabbed her husband in chest after trip to Costco
Ching Lin knifed her partner, the father of her child, when a blazing row erupted between the couple over housework. But the 40-year-old walked free from court over the attack, which she blamed in part on a Bonfire Night fireworks display which had been taking place at the time.
Liverpool Crown Court heard last month that the defendant and her victim Chiken Eng have been married since 2011 and have a nine-year-old son together. They moved to the UK from Hong Kong last year and lived together at an address in the Great Sankey area of Warrington, with Mr Eng describing them as a "loving family who got on well together".
Chris Taylor, prosecuting, told the court that, at around 6.30pm on November 5 last year, the couple returned home from shopping at Costco in Manchester. They had been arguing as they had been "late going" to the wholesale store, with the dispute continuing back at the house.
This "started off at a low level", with Lin challenging Mr Eng over "housework and household duties". But the quarrel "escalated and got heated", at which point he went to an upstairs bedroom to defuse the situation and watched an ongoing fireworks display from the window.
His wife then entered shouting and "appearing angry, emotional and clearly upset" with tears in her eyes. Mr Eng noticed that Lin was holding a 10cm kitchen knife, and she then "suddenly and unexpectedly" slapped him in the face.
He slapped her back, at which point she raised the blade with her left hand and stabbed him once in the lower chest area. The complainant fell to the ground, attempting to return to his feet but being unable to do so due to the pain.
Lin - of no fixed address - called for an ambulance, with Mr Eng having to undergo surgery due to severe internal bleeding after being rushed to hospital. He remained there as an inpatient for a week before moving into a hotel.
Lin admitted wounding and was handed a 12-month imprisonment suspended for a year. She was also told to complete a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 20 days.
Read the full story by clicking here.
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
READ NEXT
Life will never be the same after man was crushed by a horse in a freak car accident
No post for whole street because Royal Mail don't think it's safe
Teens on electric bikes attack man with batons
11 things we learnt at an explosive Liverpool Council budget meeting
Brookside's Corkhills where are they now? From West End to Benidorm
