Carer jailed for conning disabled woman out of £18,000 and spending money on shopping sprees

A carer who conned a disabled woman out of £18,000 and spent the money on shopping sprees has been jailed for three years.

Corina Lyons, 54, tricked the victim in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, into handing over her credit card and cash from an inheritance, claiming she needed to borrow the money for essential purchases.

She had started working with the woman in 2004 and became her sole carer in 2010, the Stray Ferret reported.

Judge Sean Morris called Lyons an “evil fraudster” during sentencing at York Crown Court on Thursday.

He said: “You got your nails into the next victim, who was a woman who suffers from an awful affliction that makes her bed-bound mostly, and certainly wheelchair-bound.

“You knew she had come into an inheritance and you fabricated the most convoluted tissue of lies again and again and again, and that lady was trying to help you, and you were just spending (the money).

“The (victim)…doesn’t trust anybody anymore, especially carers. She should have been enjoying the twilight of her years with loved ones – you ripped that away. You are an evil fraudster.”

Lyons told the victim, who suffered from chronic pain, she had been offered a job as a code-writer for Sony and needed money for software, the court heard.

She then went on a £10,000 spending spree with the card and blew two £5,000 loans from the victim as part of the con, which spanned six years.

Lyons had initially denied allegations and blamed the victim for the stolen money, but she admitted three counts of fraud on the day her trial started.

The woman who used a wheelchair, who has not been named, said the deceit had a “devastating” effect on her life and resulted in her having to sell her house.

It was heard the defendant had a previous fraud conviction from 2009 after conning a church-going woman out of nearly £100,000, for which she was jailed.

Lyons worked for the Harrogate care group.