The judge described it as ‘a particularly mean offence’
A mum secretly used her daughter’s passport to rack up thousands of pounds of debt in her name leaving her hounded for cash she never borrowed. Pub worker Hazel McKeating, 55, from Wigton, Cumbria, fraudulently took out £8,000 in credit using her daughter’s details, with the bill later rising to more than £10,000.
The unsuspecting victim only discovered her mother’s deception years later when letters and calls demanding repayment started landing out of the blue. Carlisle Magistrates’ Court heard the woman grew suspicious after arriving home from a holiday and finding a letter from a debt recovery firm. It stated that she owed a total of £10,557.
The daughter continued to receive phone calls and letters demanding she repay the outstanding debt, despite never applying for credit from the firm involved. She then discovered that McKeating “stole” her passport and used her details to apply for credit.
The application created the impression that the victim was the tenant of the pub that her mother was running. At the time, the victim was 21 and at university. She contacted her mother at the pub where she worked, saying she needed to talk to her about the letters.
A prosecutor told the court: “They had an argument, which ended in a scuffle.” She had no idea her mother had used her details fraudulently to obtain what at the time was credit of £8,000, though the debt increased over time because of interest.
The court heard that the police initially treated the issue as a civil matter, but the original utility company debt was later sold on to a company who made fresh efforts to recover the money from the victim. In an impact statement, the defendant’s daughter said: “This has not affected me financially yet, but the emotional effect has been massive.”
The woman said she felt she had to move house as a result of what happened and it was hard to stomach the fact that her mother had committed such a crime against her own daughter. She said: “This incident has changed my perspective on people. I consider myself as bitter because of this.”
She also felt vulnerable when the fraud was initially treated as a civil matter, fearing it could happen again. The court heard that McKeating had previous offences on her record for dishonesty.
Those included offences of obtaining services by deception and perverting the course of justice. Kate Hunter, for McKeating, said the defendant had been accepted for a mental health treatment programme. District Judge Philip Holden told McKeating: “You fraudulently used your own daughter’s details to obtain credit.
“That is a particularly mean offence; it’s aggravated by the fact that she was only 21 and you were in a position of responsibility as her mother. It’s aggravated further by the fact this is not the first time you have been in trouble for very similar matters.”
District Judge Holden said he would suspend the one-year jail term he imposed for two years. The sentence includes six months of mental health treatment and a 90-day curfew, to run from 9pm to 5am each day.
McKeating must pay the debt collection firm £10,557. She must also pay £85 costs and a £187 victim surcharge.
