Kathryn Walker has been jailed for three years and four months (Picture: North News/Ministry of Defence)
A mum spent £450,000 of her dead son’s money, which had been left for somebody else in his will.
Kathryn Walker was trusted as executor of her son Richard Walker’s will after he died on duty in Afghanistan in 2013.
Newcastle Crown Court was told that instead of looking after the cash, she spent it on caravans, horses, private number plates and paying off her own debts.
The fraud came to light when a relative of the intended beneficiary heard Walker had become ‘minted’ after the death of her son.
When the intended beneficiary’s representative didn’t get statements about the money, she became concerned.
She tried to make inquiries through Walker’s solicitors but was told they couldn’t help her.
When interviewed by police, Walker initially denied squandering the money and claimed she had spent part of it on an £18,000 memorial garden.
Nick Lane, prosecuting, said: ‘She accepted she knew the money was not hers to spend. She said she was sorry for her actions.’
Kathryn Walker led an ‘extravagant’ lifestyle and spent lots of money (Picture: North News & Pictures Ltd)
Richard Walker’s money has meant to go to somebody different (Picture: Ministry of Defence)
The intended beneficiary’s representative said in a victim impact statement: ‘She has totally breached her position of trust by using this money for her own benefit.
‘To find answers I hired a private investigator and I also had to pay £6,000 in solicitors fees.’
Lorraine Mustard, defending, stressed that her client had tried to ‘anaesthetise’ the pain of losing her son by spending the money ‘she had no right to spend’.
She added: ‘She is of previous good character. This is not a lady who’s without her own difficulties. She lost her son in all of this.
‘There has been bereavement after bereavement. She saw it in some sense as blood money after the pain of losing her son.’
Judge Julie Clemitson told Walker it is a ‘tragedy’ she is appearing in court about such a serious offence.
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She said: ‘Some of it was spent in an altruistic fashion – you paid for medical treatment for a friend’s child.
‘Some of it was spent on pure extravagance including a private number plate and horse box.
‘You had spent the entirety of the inheritance and there’s now absolutely nothing left. This was a fraud which took place over a sustained period of time and it was a gross breach of trust. It is the loss of a life-changing sum of money.’
Walker, of Horsley Road, Washington, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of trust and was jailed for three years and four months.
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The money was meant for someone else but the mum decided to splurge it all anyway.