Cleaner denies stealing £18k from OAPs for online gambling

A DETECTIVE has told a court he believes cash withdrawn from the bank account of an elderly couple was used to fund the online gambling debts of their cleaner.

Kathleen Johnston (55) has gone on trial facing allegations of stealing more than £18,000 from her employers Kenneth and Vera Hollidge of Fort Augustus.

Inverness Sheriff Court heard today (Monday) that the couple had moved to the Highlands from Cornwall and both are now deceased.

The alleged thefts came to light when a solicitor examining the couple’s estate found discrepancies which gave cause for concern.

The couple’s only son John (64), a retired police office, told the court his parents’ solicitor told him there were discrepancies which she found alarming.

He said he did not think the signatures on cheques which had been cashed from his parents account were those of his mother.

He said he felt “sick” when the allegations were revealed to him.

“It was their money,” he said.

Asked by depute fiscal Michelle Molley if there was any reason after his mother’s death why his father should spend £1,000 a week in cash.

“No.” he replied. “My father never drank or smoke. He enjoyed reading and Sky TV.”

Mr Hollidge said occasionally his father would go out to a local hotel for a meal or tea and cream scones.

After his mother’s death in April 2010 his father moved into a care home in August of that year. He died in April 2011.

Detective Constable Neil McCallum, who examined the bank accounts of the Hollidges and those of Johnston, said cheques and ATMS withdrawals from the Mr and Mrs Hollidge’s accounts matched those of payments into Johnston’s bank accounts.

Johnston faces charges of obtaining £2,212 by fraud between December 2009 and April 9, 2011 by cashing cheques at the Bank of Scotland in Fort Augustus; stealing a Lloyds Bank card from the Hollidges’ home at Meadow Croft, Market Hill, Fort Augustus, on February 5, 2012 and between that date and December 10, 2010 using the card to make repeated ATM withdrawals and stealing £16,251.

Johnston, of Fort Augustus, denies all charges. She has lodged a special defence of consent relating to the cheques, alibi in relation to the theft of cash from the ATMs and further denies stealing the Hollidge’s bank card.

DC McCallum said the cheques were cashed between January and April 2010 before Mrs Hollidge passed away. He described payments into Johnston’s accounts which coincided with the cheques and figures from the ATM withdrawals from the Hollidges’ bank account.

He said she was transferring money from one account to the other.

There was quite a lot of expenditure on Johnston’s accounts from online gambling sites.

The detective said he found income from gambling sites totalling £6,840 but over £18,000 in expenditure to these sites.

“In your opinion,” asked depute fiscal Michelle Molley, “are the cash funds (from the Hollidges’ account) being used to fund the on-line gambling payments?”

“Yes,” replied DC MacCallum.

The trial before Sheriff Susan Raeburn continues.

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