Rebecca Fidler, 34, drained an elderly couple’s bank accounts to fund gambling, drugs and takeaways (Picture: Daily Mail / Cumbria Police)
A couple’s trusted carer drained an elderly couple’s bank accounts of more than £75,000 to fund gambling, drugs and takeaways.
Rebecca Fidler, 34, had been hired to help the couple in Carlisle, Cumbria.
She was trusted to use their bank cards to withdraw their pension – but instead cleared out their life savings in a ‘dreadful offence’.
Judge Julian Shaw told Carlisle Crown Court: ‘What you did when entrusted with their bank card was systemically to steal from this very vulnerable and entirely trusting couple.’
Bill Gass, a Royal Navy veteran who served in Prince Philip’s flotilla in the Second World War, and his wife Annie said they had ‘no inkling’ of what Fidler was doing.
Mr Gass sadly died last December before Fidler could be brought to justice.
But Mrs Gass, now 91, watched Fidler be sentenced to 30 months in prison via video link last Monday.
Fidler was trusted to use their bank cards to withdraw their pension – but instead cleared out their life savings (Picture: Cumbria Police)
Bill and Annie Gass had ‘no inkling’ of what Fidler was doing – and Mr Gass sadly died before seeing her brought to justice (Picture: Daily Mail)
The pensioner told the Daily Mail: ‘She thought she’d get away with it. Everybody trusted her.
‘The police came and told us [what happened], saying a lot of your money has come out the bank.
‘She had looked after us well but she’d been pinching from the beginning. We didn’t realise.’
Fidler had transferred £75,287 from three different accounts owned by the couple between September 2019 and April 2021.
She was caring for the elderly couple by helping them with cleaning, food shopping and cooking, as well as withdrawing their pension funds for them.
Fidler was sentenced to 30 months in prison via video link at Carlisle Crown Court last Monday (Picture: Google Maps)
But a fraud investigator reported to Cumbria Police that large amounts of money had been transferred from their account into one owned by Fidler.
The couple were ‘devastated’ when they discovered they had been left only around £2,000.
The couple’s bank has since reimbursed Mrs Gass with £40,000, but Fidler had frittered away most of the stolen money on a redecoration of her house.
The couple’s son, Steve Gass, 67, said: ‘The fact she’s got away with all the money is rather annoying. When she gets out she’ll be laughing.’
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Detective constable Gabrielle Nicholson, of Cumbria Police, said: ‘Fidler took advantage of an extremely vulnerable couple, withholding their bank cards from them and stating she was unable to get bank statements in attempts to hide the theft from the couple.
‘Sadly, one of the victims has since passed and not seen justice being served today.
‘This sentence shows those that take advantage of those most vulnerable within our communities will be brought to justice.’
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Rebecca Fidler, 34, drained an elderly couple’s bank accounts to fund gambling, drugs and takeaways.
