Wednesday, July 20, 2011

UK Mews: A Student Spendaholic


Student spendaholic blew £19,000 on her mother's credit card, stole £12,000 from grandmother and even tried to re-mortgage family home


  • Lucy Harris, 26, jailed for nine months after lavish spending spree

Last updated at 1:15 AM on 21st July 2011
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Convicted: Student Lucy Harris, pictured here with a male companion, who ran up thousands of pounds of bills on her mother's credit cards
Convicted: Student Lucy Harris, pictured here with a male companion, who ran up thousands of pounds of bills on her mother's credit cards
She stole tens of thousands of pounds from her mother to fund lavish spending sprees and foreign holidays.
Not content with that, Lucy Harris then targeted her elderly grandmother.

But incredibly, the student still has her mother's support - although her pleas for leniency fell on deaf ears yesterday.
A judge jailed Harris, 26, for nine months and said: 'It was the ultimate betrayal of a family.'

He rejected a claim by Harris, a single mother of a seven-month-old boy, that she committed the crimes over five years to punish mother Wendy for keeping her in the dark when her father Stuart was dying of leukaemia in 2000.
Her thefts totalled £38,000 - but she was thwarted in an attempt to gain £360,000 more by remortgaging the family home.

The court heard that Harris was a talented student who won a place to study at Liverpool John Moores University.
But she began using her mother’s HSBC bank card and credit card and Marks and Spencer’s store card without permission, and flew to New York,  Amsterdam,  Tenerife and Italy. 

She also used her  mother’s identity and funds for three holidays at Center Parcs, trips on North Sea ferries, stays in hotels, clothes and restaurant meals.
Her tally on ten cards in her mother’s name reached £26,000, including £3,000 on phone bills, £3,000 on clothes and more on sofas, cosmetics and tickets to comedy shows.
 


    Astonishingly, for four years, her mother blamed herself and paid off the debts without taking further action.

    Last year, she reached the end of her tether and called the police – but she dropped the charges after her daughter promised to change.

    Within months, however, the fraudster turned to stealing from her grandmother, Ivy Harris, who lived in Beverley, East Yorkshire. 

    Cash cow: Lucy Harris tried to remortgage her mother Wendy's house (pictured) in Stamford Bridge, East Yorkshire
    Cash cow: Lucy Harris tried to remortgage her mother Wendy's house (pictured) in Stamford Bridge, East Yorkshire

    By the time the elderly Mrs Harris found out, her granddaughter had run up bills of £12,000 in her name.

    Mrs Harris died within a week of discovering the betrayal.

    The student was also caught plotting to forge signatures so she could remortgage her mother’s home and raise more cash.

    Delusional: Lucy Harris told her mother she had graduated from Liverpool's John Moores University (pictured) with a first, but she hadn't even finished her degree
    Delusional: Lucy Harris told her mother she had graduated from Liverpool's John Moores University (pictured) with a first, but she hadn't even finished her degree

    The court also heard that Harris falsely told her mother she had graduated from her university with a first class degree, when she had not even completed her course. 
    And she swindled the father of her son Harry.

    But despite all this, her mother sent a letter to Hull Crown Court to try to save her from jail after she pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud and asked for a further 150 to be taken into consideration.

    ‘It was utterly despicable. You have been given chance after chance by your mother.You threw it back in her face after she declined to continue with the police investigation and turned your attention to your grandmother, which was almost unimaginable.'

    - Judge Michael Mettyear


    The mother, 60, of Stamford Bridge in East Yorkshire, wrote: ‘I want to beg you to show her mercy by not giving her a custodial sentence. I have forgiven her for her actions.

    ‘I feel they were a result of my husband’s death. She struggled to cope with the loss of a much-loved father. She realises she has ruined her life.’ 

    But Judge Michael Mettyear told a weeping Harris, of Pocklington, East Yorkshire: ‘Over five years, you acted in a determined and deliberate way. You were thoroughly manipulative.

    ‘It was utterly despicable. You have been given chance after chance by your mother. 

    ‘You threw it back in her face after she declined to continue with the police investigation and turned your attention to your grandmother, which was almost unimaginable.

    ‘I do not accept it was all down to the loss of your father. No doubt you were extremely upset, but this was determined dishonesty.’ 
    Lavish: A flight to Tenerife (pictured) was among Lucy Harris's fraudulent purchases
    Lavish: A flight to Tenerife (pictured) was among Lucy Harris's fraudulent purchases


    www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016873/Lucy-Harris-26-jailed-months-year-lavish-spending-spree.html#ixzz1ShiXKijU

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