Woman defrauded frail uncle out of £200k earlier than making him dwell in cellar with canines
A callous mother-of-six has been jailed after defrauding her frail uncle out of more than £200,000 before forcing him to live in squalor in a sparse basement.
Pamela Urvoy, 55, ‘concocted a web of lies to defraud her elderly and sick uncle out of his life savings’, police said after she was given a four-year jail term.
Businessman Michael Urvoy amassed £280,000 of stocks and shares before suffering a stroke in his late 60s which left him unable to sign documents or withdraw cash.
At a family meeting in 2008, his niece promised relatives she would look after him at her modest terraced home in Padiham, Lancashire, rather than putting him in a nursing home.
In 2013, Urvoy – who worked as a carer – suggested she and her uncle could buy a large property with land and stables in Oswaldtwistle, a village near Blackburn.
She proposed they each contribute 50 per cent to the purchase of the property and would share ownership equally.
But Urvoy ensured all the deeds to the house were signed over entirely to herself, while her uncle contributed 100 per cent of the funds.
He was not allowed to live upstairs in the house or dine with the rest of the family – and was left ‘unkempt and unwashed’.
Pamela Urvoy, jailed for four years after admitting two counts of fraud against her uncle
Alex Bennie, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court: ‘[The plan] was that he might have more living space for his proper care and Pamela Urvoy would have significant stable space for the horses she had as part of her business. It was described as ‘her dream’.’
‘Once they moved in, Urvoy and her partner demoted her uncle’s living space to a sparsely furnished basement where they also kept dogs, despite his age and vulnerability.’
Mr Bennie said the ‘total gain’ was £203,000 ‘through the ruse of pretending Urvoy and he were to own a half share each.’
In 2017, a matron from a care home visited the house to consider respite care for Mr Urvoy, to enable his niece and her partner to go on holiday.
When she saw the conditions Mr Urvoy was living in, she was reduced to tears and opened an immediate safeguarding referral.
She said the frail pensioner was ‘unkempt and unwashed’ when she visited the house.
A social worker visited the house and learned Mr Urvoy would be taken down to the basement and left there for hours at a time.
During the visit, Urvoy spoke over her uncle. But he told the social worker he was not allowed to live upstairs in the house or dine with the rest of the family.
An investigation was launched and Mr Urvoy was moved out of the address and placed into care.
But he died aged 84 in March last year, before the resulting prosecution could be heard at Preston Crown Court.
Kristian Cavanagh, defending, said Urvoy – convicted of two counts of fraud after a trial – was undergoing treatment for an aggressive cancer but was fully prepared to go to prison.
Sentencing today, Judge Graham Knowles KC said: ‘You saw the opportunity in your uncle’s vulnerability.
‘You showed no remorse at the trial and you have shown no remorse since. It doesn’t take a list of adjectives and adverbs from me to describe what you have done. The facts speak for themselves.’
The judge said he appreciated Urvoy was facing the ‘daunting prospect of prison’ when she was in poor health. But he added: ‘You could have and should have pleaded guilty long ago.’
Investigators found that in October 2013 a sum of £203,502.17 was transferred from the victim’s bank account and then to the solicitors for the house purchase, with a payment reference of “Mrs Pamela”.
The financial investigation showed that the victim’s current account was constantly overdrawn beyond the overdraft limit, despite about £550 being paid in every month.
Lancashire Police said Mr Urvoy was left sleeping ‘in a cellar basement room and was ill-cared for, which caused serious concerns to social services’ – adding that his niece ‘concocted a web of lies to defraud her elderly and sick uncle out of his life savings’.
Urvoy initially claimed that the majority of the money for the purchase – £203,000 – had come from an inheritance, but when she was asked for proof of that, Urvoy later claimed her uncle had gifted her the money.
Detective Constable Jo Billington said: ‘Under the ruse of playing the doting and caring niece, Urvoy concocted a web of lies to defraud her elderly and sick uncle out of his life savings.’
A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing will take place at a later date to determine how much Urvoy can repay from her assets.
