A ZIMBABWEAN carer who forced a pensioner to sign over his home before stripping his assets with a total value of £300,000 in Worcester, England, was starting a two-and-half year jail term last night.
Evil Nozizwe Mlotshwa, 44, of Manchester, was convicted of three counts of fraud by the Worcester Crown Court in August and sentencing had been deferred. The court ruled that she abused her position as carer to widower Dennis Breakwell, 81.
Police said she put herself in a position of trust and "callously stripped" him of his estate after he signed over his house and savings.
Solicitors became suspicious when they found Breakwell had no money when he died in October 2008.
Bank statements showed regular payments had been made to Mlotshwa, a former care agency worker, who had persuaded Breakwell to pay her directly to be his carer after he suffered a stroke.
Det Con Julie Williams, who led the 20-month investigation, said Mlotshwa established herself into a position of trust in an "astonishingly short space of time" and on one occasion wrote herself a cheque for £75,000.
"The 44-year-old deliberately targeted elderly and vulnerable Dennis Breakwell - a Worcester man living alone and many miles from his relatives - and calculatingly and callously stripped him of all but a very small part of his substantial assets," she said.
The case came to trial after the executors of Breakwell's estate noticed all his financial paperwork was missing after his death.
The retired civil servant from Geneva Close, Northwick, had employed Harrison Clark Solicitors when his wife died in 1996.
Dawn Oliver, from the law firm, said after Mlotshwa's conviction, he had been a "very meticulous man" whose finances were kept in order.
"It came as quite a surprise to see that he didn't own his house any more and he didn't have any money left," she said.