A ZIMBABWEAN carer who fleeced a widower of his life savings, including a £200,000 home, has been warned she faces a lengthy jail term after being convicted on three counts of fraud by an English court.
Nozizwe Mlotshwa, 44, of Carstairs Close, Manchester, was released on bail awaiting sentencing at the Hereford Crown Court on September 20.
Police launched an investigation after Worcester widower Dennis Breakwell, 81, died in October 2008 and his bank account was found to contain very little money by his estate’s executor.
Testifying in the two-week-trial, Breakwell’s lawyer Dawn Oliver said over a period of 16 and half months, Mlotshwa “blatantly abused Blackwell’s trust and successfully prevented relatives from calling in to see him because it was ‘not convenient’.”
In that period, the lawyer said, Mlotshwa was systematically reducing Blackwell’s cash assets from £120,000 to a mere £9,000. She had also become the sole owner of his £200,000.
She said: “While Breakwell dealt with the aftermath of a stroke and battled depression and other health issues, Mlotshwa targeted his life savings including withdrawing £75,000 just six weeks before his death and quickly persuading him to pay her £800 per week as his carer directly, as opposed to paying the Alcester-based agency that had supplied her.
"This quickly depleted his account to such an extent that when he passed away, he would not have been able to pay her. Basically, all that was left was some £8,700, which was sufficient to pay for his funeral costs, but left virtually nothing for the charities he had always intended would be substantial beneficiaries."
Oliver said Breakwell, who was widowed in 1996, periodically but not substantially, changed his will until his death, but it remained clear that the retired civil servant wanted to make substantial bequests to his selected charities -- Cancer Research UK and The Arthritis & Rheumatism Council.
"Mr Breakwell was a meticulous gentleman, always well dressed, polite and traditional," said Oliver.
"The day after he died, we received a telephone call from Mlotshwa saying she was his friend and we began to think that something was horribly wrong.
"While, as executors, we could not find any relevant paperwork in the late Mr Breakwell's home, further enquiries to the Land Registry revealed that the property transferred totally to Mlotshwa upon our client's death -- totally by-passing probate and the intended charities, the condition having been put in place some eight months after she became his carer.”
At the end of Mlotshwa’s trial on August 18, the High Court granted freezing injunctions that prevent Breakwell's home being sold and Mlotshwa from withdrawing any of the £61,000 that remains from the £75,000 she withdrew from his account.
Lead investigator Detective Constable Julie Williams of West Mercia Police said: "While crimes and investigations like this are extremely rare, it demonstrates just how a vulnerable and elderly person living on their own can fall prey to someone like Mlotshwa who, we are convinced, is a professional criminal who was coldly and coolly intent on befriending and then defrauding her victim.
“Within an astonishingly short space of time, she established herself in a position of such trust that she was able to convince Mr Breakwell that he should employ her directly, instead of through an agency, and that she should become a joint owner of his Geneva Close home -- with the property passing directly to her on his death, without being treated as a part of his estate.
"So confident was she of not being challenged that she treated his bank accounts as if they were her own and on one occasion writing out a cheque in her favour to withdraw £75,000.
"Everything about her actions and her responses confirms that her control over her victim's estimated £350,000 assets was such that she felt that she could continue to escalate her illegal activities.
“It is anyone's guess what she saw as the ultimate outcome as, when the offences came to light, there was very little left of Mr Breakwell's savings.”
Sentencing is expected to coincide with a court compensation order ensuring that the “frozen” assets are returned to the estate for distribution in line with Breakwell's final wishes.