Carer who stole great-granddad’s life savings and fled to Barbados is jailed and blasted by judge
Toni Chippendale fled to Barbados where she sunbathed topless and boasted of her wealth to other holidaymakers
A CALLOUS carer who fleeced a great-grandfather of his £74,000 life savings and then fled to Barbados while awaiting sentence has been locked up.
Toni Chippendale, 55, admitted stealing £74,000 from 86-year-old Geoffrey Cooke and over-charging him £25,000 in care fees.
But last month as she awaited sentence, she provoked more fury by flying to Barbados where she sunbathed topless and boasted of her wealth to other holidaymakers.
The pictures - which appeared in The Sun - prompted outrage from her victim’s family.
Geoffrey's daughter Cath Bermingham, 54, said: "How can she even sleep at night, let alone go on a luxury holiday?
"My father thought Toni was wonderful and told the family that he trusted her.
"He worked hard all his life but he died in a care home penniless because of her greed."
Following the luxury break she appeared back at Preston Crown Court to be sentenced.
Jailing callous Chippendale for six years Judge Graham Knowles blasted her decision to jet off before she had seen a probation officer.
He said: “Toni Chippendale you are a thief, a liar and a cheat. Your crimes are despicable.
“The court must defend those who cannot defend themselves.
“Geoffrey and John Cooke were human beings with all the worth and dignity of any human beings you treated them as though they counted for nothing.
“You were indeed the ‘smiler with the knife under the cloak.’
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“You carried your crimes out with sophistication planning and determination.
“You lied brazenly to the Cookes and their family.
“Many people pass through the dock in this court who have caused injury and loss. Some of them have offended time and again but few of them have done it in the callous and brazen fashion that you have and few have done it in such plane defiant of human decency.
“The circumstances in which she was able to travel to Barbados given her assets were under restriction is something which may be investigated in the confiscation proceedings.
“She thought fit to go to Barbados whist awaiting for sentence which tends to confirm what others in the case make plain about her attitude about her offending.”
Earlier the court heard Chippendale began working as Geoffrey's carer after he suffered a minor stroke.
Retired BAE worker Geoffrey had taken on the role of carer for his son John, 57, who had Down's syndrome, after his wife died.
But when the pensioner had a stroke his family hired Chippendale through an agency.
Chippendale then began working directly for him and his son and persuaded Geoffrey to take them all on holidays.
She conned him into paying for luxury trips, sold him a three-piece suite and persuaded him to buy her car for £5,000.
In December 2006, Geoffrey’s home was sold for £176,000 and the money transferred into Chippendale’s account.
A day later, Chippendale transferred £73,000 back to his bank account – telling him that was how much the house was sold for.
The pensioner died in October from kidney failure, months before his son John passed away in March.
Their deaths came before Chippendale pleaded guilty to fraud and theft.
Chippendale, of Ingol, Lancs, was sentenced today at Preston Crown Court.
The Cooke family cheered as she was sentenced and taken down to the cells.
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