OAP in court over multiple accusations
Over a billion pounds is lost by lenders each year, and one Scottish woman has been accused of adding to that amount by impersonating her own husband.
The 66-year-old has denied a series of fraud allegations said to total more than £135,000 after prosecutors claimed she impersonated her husband over the phone to obtain cash, loans and a mortgage advance.
Karen Lawrence pleaded not guilty at a pre-trial first diet at Ayr Sheriff Court. The Crown alleges that, between February 18, 2019 and February 28, 2020, she operated a scheme to obtain money from an address in Burnside Drive, Dalrymple, and at other locations in Scotland.
According to the indictment, Lawrence withdrew a total of £25,000 from a joint bank account “without his knowledge or consent” on various dates between February 19 and November 30, 2019.
It is further alleged she telephoned specialist lender Precise Mortgages, adopted a male voice and pretended to be her husband, arranged a valuation of the couple’s home and placed it on the market. On the strength of that valuation, prosecutors say, she submitted a mortgage application in her husband’s name and “thereby securing a loan for £60,866.44”.
The Crown also claims she applied for and obtained loans from Nationwide Building Society totalling £17,000 between August 23 and October 5, 2019, and made a further application for £6,000 on September 27, 2019.
In addition, Lawrence is said to have contacted Fidelity Pension by telephone between October 11 and November 15, 2019, again adopting a male voice, before submitting two pension withdrawal forms between November 20 and December 22, 2019 that were “uttered as genuine”, resulting in payments of £75,553.49.
Prosecutors allege she reported a credit card in her husband’s name as stolen in an attempt to conceal transactions made without his consent, along with reimbursements totalling £1,127.26.
A further allegation states that in January 2020 she made a loan application to a finance company for £10,000, bearing her husband’s name as the signatory.
The charge narrates that she stole £135,786.41 and tried to obtain another £10,000 by fraud, with the offences aggravated by abuse of a partner or ex-partner.
A second charge alleges that, on May 25, 2019 at Burnside Drive and elsewhere, she presented as genuine a mortgage application, pension withdrawal paperwork and loan applications with her husband’s “signature being forged”.
Bail was continued. Lawrence, whose address was given as Kilmarnock, is due to return to court at a later date.
