{"id":408580,"date":"2026-02-05T03:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T03:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/408580\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T03:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T03:32:15","slug":"greedy-care-home-couple-are-jailed-for-trying-to-fleece-85-year-old-woman-out-of-133000-using-fake-will-with-different-handwriting-and-coloured-pens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/408580\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Greedy’ care home couple are jailed for trying to fleece 85-year-old woman out of \u00a3133,000 using fake will with different handwriting and coloured pens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two ‘greedy’ care home bosses who tried to fleece a pensioner out of \u00a3133,000 using a fake will have each been jailed for three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Owners Graham Walker, 74, and his wife Lyn, 71, plotted with manager Jamiel Slaney-Summers, 65, to scam frail 85-year-old Rita Barnsley in ‘one of the UK’s biggest elder fraud cases’.<\/a><\/p>\n

The ‘sham’ will was created with different coloured pens and different handwriting while the ‘isolated’ pensioner was living at Amberley Care Home in Brierley Hill, West Midlands, a court heard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bogus document thanked ‘good friend’ Ms Slaney-Summers ‘for the happiness and laughter she gave me’ while Lyn Walker was included ‘for allowing me to stay in her lovely home’.<\/p>\n

An investigation by council bosses was launched after Miss Barnsley’s only surviving relative, her cousin Verna Woolley, became suspicious and made a complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was found that the scheming trio had plotted to get the largest amount of the estate made up Miss Barnsley’s \u00a3150,000 house and \u00a328,000 in savings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, Mr and Mrs Walker, of Halesowen, were jailed at Wolverhampton Crown Court and each ordered to pay \u00a330,000 costs.<\/p>\n

Ms Slaney-Summers, of Northfield, Birmingham, was previously sentenced to five and a half years.<\/p>\n

\"Owners <\/p>\n

Owners Graham Walker, 74, and his wife Lyn, 71, (pictured) who tried to fleece a pensioner out of \u00a3133,000, have been jailed for three years\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rita <\/p>\n

Rita Barnsley, 85, was scammed by the care home owners and manager before her death in the summer of 2021<\/p>\n

Sentencing, Judge John Butterfield KC said: ‘This was a situation which presented itself to you and you reacted with greed rather than with concern or honesty.’<\/p>\n

He said Miss Barnsley’s cousin suffered from agoraphobia but did what she could to keep in touch.<\/p>\n

He said ‘deliberate steps’ were taken to make it more difficult for Miss Woolley, who was told she could only contact Miss Barnsley on a land line.<\/p>\n

The judge added: ‘Miss Woolley smelt a rat from the outset.<\/p>\n

‘She was fobbed off but not bought off.’<\/p>\n

‘Vulnerable’ Miss Barnsley moved into the care home after becoming unwell in May 2020, the court was told.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, the Walkers owned the care home, while Ms Slaney-Summers was the registered manager.<\/p>\n

Miss Barnsley, who died in the summer of 2021, had cash in bank accounts and owned property worth ‘in excess of \u00a3150,000.’<\/p>\n

\"Jamiel <\/p>\n

Jamiel Slaney-Summers, manager of the care home (pictured), was due to receive 50 per cent of Miss Barnsley’s estate<\/p>\n

\"Miss <\/p>\n

Miss Barnsley moved into the\u00a0Amberley Care Home in Brierley Hill, West Midlands after becoming unwell in May 2020, the court was told<\/p>\n

Her last will and testament, which appointed Mrs Walker and Ms Slaney-Summers as executors, was made on January 12, 2021.<\/p>\n

The will left Mrs Walker with 25 per cent of Miss Barnsley’s estate and 50 per cent to Ms Slaney-Summers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prosecutor\u00a0Mark Jackson said Miss Barnsley’s only living relative and next of kin was her cousin Miss Woolley, who had been adopted into the family.<\/p>\n

However, the contact between the cousins ‘diminished significantly’ while Miss Barnsley was at the care home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Jackson said: ‘Miss Barnsley clearly became more isolated from her daily connections in the community.’<\/p>\n

Miss Woolley began to have ‘concerns’ when she read the will and noticed she had been referred to as her ‘adopted cousin’ – a term she insisted Miss Barnsley never used.<\/p>\n

Ms Slaney-Summers also stole around \u00a36,000 by making withdrawals from Miss Barnsley’s bank account by using her card, the court heard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Defence attorney\u00a0Henry Skudra said: ‘It was Slaney Summers who was the driving force behind what was going on.<\/p>\n

‘The Walkers were involved in the latter stages and were not involved in the forgery of the will.<\/p>\n

‘Mercifully Miss Barnsley was not aware of what had happened.<\/p>\n

‘Both the defendants are of good character. Each of them have led blameless lives before what was rather an opportunist crime.<\/p>\n

‘Decades of hard work and reputations ruined.’<\/p>\n

He said both the Walkers had health issues with Mr Walker having been hospitalised nine times in 2025.<\/p>\n

He had also recently had an operation which had resulted in his bowel and intestine removed.<\/p>\n

Mr Skudra said Mrs Walker had worked in the care industry for 52 years and was a carer for her husband.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two ‘greedy’ care home bosses who tried to fleece a pensioner out of \u00a3133,000 using a fake will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[97,59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-408580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-dailymail","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}