Recently, Rye News ran an article, Every picture tells a story, on Elizabeth Smith, the owner of Waves Estates in Rye, who tricked an 80 year-old woman, Joan Cannon, into paying her £160,000 for a bungalow in St Leonards. The property was also going to be home for Mrs Cannon and her autistic son, however the accused used the money herself, to fund a lavish lifestyle which included the purchase of a Mercedes (pictured below) and a holiday in Dubai.
It is understood Mrs Cannon lived her final days in poverty as a result, she sadly passed away earlier this year. Meanwhile Smith was found guilty of fraud and has been awaiting sentencing as her earlier hearing was delayed.
Smith, of Winchelsea, pleaded guilty to fraud between May 2018 and May 2019 and has been awarded a five-year jail sentence for what the judge described as “an utterly despicable crime”
Judge Martin Huseyin told her in Hove Crown Court that ” Mrs Cannon was vulnerable to this type of fraud due to her age and circumstances. The effects on her were catastrophic. She lost everything she and her husband had built up together. Her last couple of years and months were financially blighted and she lived the remainder of her life in poverty.”
Image Credits: Nick Forman .
Sad story of local estate agent but I see no mention of her returning the money stolen to the estate of Mrs Cannon!? I see no point of imprisonment without restitution!
And there was me thinking the sentence wasn’t long enough, if she spent the money how do you suggest “restitution” is applied?
Well, they could clearly impound and sell the Merc for starters