Student defrauded grandmother of £18,000 to spend on make-up

Between January and June 2019, Robbie Walkden pilfered his vulnerable relative’s bank account of £7,000, which he spent on make-up products for a college course, fast food and designer luxuries.

The 30-year-old was caught out after his grandmother’s bank flagged up the transactions, and after being confronted, he said he would pay back everything he owed.

But the 30-year-old continued to defraud her, spending a further £11,000 on her debit card and resulting in a letter from debt collectors arriving at her home.

Walkden, of Perrins Road in Burtonwood, was charged with two counts of fraud after his grandmother reported his actions to the police.

He appeared before Liverpool Crown Court to discover his sentence and was subsequently jailed – all without paying a penny back.

Damien Nolan, prosecuting, explained how the offending happened just months after the death of the victim’s husband, who was also the defendant’s grandfather.

She was alerted to what had been going on in June 2019 after attending her local bank branch upon instruction from staff.

After viewing account statements, she ‘instantly knew’ that £7,000 worth of transactions for make-up, designer clothes, fast food and Amazon products had been carried out without her permission by her grandson.

Walkden was at the time enrolled on a hair and make-up course at St Helens College, which required him to buy the cosmetic products.

She confronted him about the transactions on return from the bank, to which he admitted, apologised, promised never to do again and pledged to refund to her all the money taken.

The court heard how he had previously been allowed to make a one-off payment on her card to buy make-up for college, but he had saved the card details and chose not to delete them.

Liverpool Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

The victim decided against reporting the fraud to the police after being begged not to by her daughter, Walkden’s mother, and in belief that such offending would not happen again.

But it did happen again for a longer period of time between July 2019 and June 2020, this time to the value of £11,000 followed the victim’s move to online banking and paperless statements.

On being confronted once more, Walkden burst into tears and was told by his grandmother that she wanted nothing more to do with him.

On July 16, the complainant received a letter from a debt collection agency saying she owed them £229. This caused her a great deal of stress, after which she ‘broke down’ and called the police.

In total, Walkden was responsible for approximately 420 transactions over the whole period worth a value of around £18,000, not one penny of which has been paid back.

Mr Nolan told the court how Walkden had a relevant previous conviction from September 2011 – the theft of £200 as an employee of Co-op, which led him to being sacked.

In his defence, Sarah Griffin highlighted his entitlement to full credit for his guilty pleas and his expression of regret and remorse in his pre-sentence report and in his letter to the court.

She said: “The defendant fully expects a sentence of immediate imprisonment, but I ask you to suspend it in this case.”

This was rejected however by judge Rachel Smith, who said that because of the seriousness and impact of his offending, only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate.

Before handing down her sentence, she said: “Between the start of January and June 2019, you defrauded your grandmother of approximately £7,000, exploiting her lack of awareness of what you were doing.

“You promised not to do it again, but you persisted for longer and for more money. You would not have stopped had matters not come to light.

“She supported you emotionally and financially in your aspirations of education and college, and you abused her trust.”

Taking everything into account, judge Smith jailed Walkden for 20 months.