Gambling Addict Who Stole £325k from Family and Friends, Jailed for 6 Years

A gambling addict who stole £325,000 from family, friends and people she was supposed to provide care for, has been jailed for 6 years after the judge ruled her actions has “wreaked utter carnage” upon those she stole from.

Systematically and Ruthlessly Stole Money

39 year-old Clare Roughley stole the shocking amounts of money from her family, friends and people she was a carer for, in order to fund her gambling addiction. Courts in Liverpool heard this week, how the gambling addict stole over £58,000 from her own grandmother who was suffering with dementia and even delivered a eulogy at her funeral while family and friends were unaware of her theft.

Her grandmother had left Ms Roughley around £6,000 in her will, but even after her grandmother’s death, she still plundered money from her estate.

The courts heard how she also stole over £91,000 from her father who had set the money aside towards his retirement and stole over £158,000 from her mother. Ms Roughley had apparently taken advantage of her parents’ naivety and lack of security around their banking details, in order to drain their accounts.

‘World Turned Upside Down’

Mr Raymond Roughley said his whole world had been turned upside down when he checked his bank account to find it had been completely emptied. He said “I couldn’t believe what my own flesh and blood had done to me. I never in a million years would have imagined Clare to be capable of this.”

Not only did Ms Roughley steal money from bank accounts, but she also fraudulently set up credit cards and bank loans in her family’s names, while using the funds to fund her own gambling habit.

As well as stealing from her parents and grandmother, Ms Roughley also stole money from a lady of whom she had been entrusted to care for. Jean Almond, aged 70, and her husband had around £17,000 stolen from them, along with a further £8,700 of credit card debt which was fraudulently taken out by Roughley, in Mrs Almond’s name.

This week, a judge ruled that despite Ms Roughley’s gambling addiction, her actions were serious enough to warrant a custodial sentence and jailed her for 6 years.