Care home bosses Graham and Lyn Walker, along with the home’s former manager, Jamiel Slaney-Summers, heartlessly tried to steal the estate of 85-year-old Rita Barnsley following her death
A twisted husband and wife faked an elderly woman’s will in an attempt to claim her £175,000 estate after her death in their care home.
Graham and Lyn Walker, now aged 74 and 71, used coloured pens and different styles of handwriting to forge a will for 85-year-old Rita Barnsley. The pensioner had moved into Amberley Care Home in Dudley, West Midlands in May 2020 before becoming unwell.
The couple, along with the home’s former manager, Jamiel Slaney-Summers, schemed together to try and take the lion’s share of the estate made up of the value of her £150,000 house and £28,000 in savings. Their plan was only uncovered after Miss Barnsley’s only surviving relative, her cousin Verna Woolley, became suspicious and made a complaint.
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The fake will is suspected to have been drawn up in summer 2021, a short time after Miss Barnsley died. Dudley Trading Standards, which investigated and prosecuted the case, found the document was a “sham” with mismatched signatures naming Walker and Slaney-Summers as executors.
The will said Miss Barnsley was handing the estate over to Slaney-Summers “for the happiness and laugher she gave me”. The will added “she became a close friend”. Graham and Lyn Walker were jailed for three years at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Wednesday and each ordered to pay £30,000 costs.
Slaney-Summers, of Northfield, Birmingham, was previously jailed for five-and-a-half years after all three were convicted of fraud. Sentencing, Judge John Butterfield KC said: “This was a situation which presented itself to you and you reacted with greed rather than with concern or honesty.”
The court was told that ‘vulnerable’ Miss Barnsley moved into the care home after becoming unwell in May 2020. At the time, the Walkers owned the care home, while Slaney-Summers was the registered manager. Miss Barnsley, who died in the summer of 2021, had cash in bank accounts and owned property worth ‘in excess of £150,000’.
Her last will and testament was reportedly made on January 12, 2021. In it, Mrs Walker and Slaney-Summers were appointed as executors of the will. It left Mrs Walker, the owner of the care home, 25 per cent of Miss Barnsley’s estate, with 50 per cent being left to Slaney-Summers.
The court heard Slaney-Summers also stole around £6,000 by making withdrawals from Miss Barnsley’s bank account by using her card. Henry Skudra, defending, said: “It was Slaney Summers who was the driving force behind what was going on. The Walkers were involved in the latter stages and were not involved in the forgery of the will.
“Mercifully Miss Barnsley was not aware of what had happened. Both the defendants are of good character. Each of them have lead blameless lives before what was rather an opportunist crime. Decades of hard work and reputations ruined.”
Amberley Care Home is now under new management.
