Callous conwoman who swindled husband’s 91-year-old aunt out of thousands is jailed

Ordering Michelle Gregg to serve sentence equally between jail and licence conditions, Judge Alistair Devlin said he could discern no obvious motivation for the series of frauds and forgeries such as an addiction to drink, drugs or gambling.

Highlighting that Gregg had no money worries either, the Antrim Crown Court judge said he was “unfortunately forced to the conclusion that the only real reason you decided to commit this offending was because you could.”

“You thought you could do it, you thought you could get away with it and in order to do so you were quite prepared to exploit the age, vulnerability and frailty of an elderly relative in order to steal from her in excess of £40,000 that she quite clearly needed and you in the last analysis, did not,” said Judge Devlin.

Jailing Gregg, whose marriage has broken down as a result of defrauding her husband’s aunt, the judge said the offending has clearly had a significant impact on the pensioner who “in her later years was both trusting and entitled to feel comfortable about her financial security which, no doubt, years of prudence had entitled her to.”

That was until Gregg “cynically exploited” her trust and financial security to write out five cheques to herself amounting to £40,300.

At her arraignment last September Gregg, from Smyth Crescent in Portglenone, confessed to five counts of fraud by false representation by cashing cheques she was not entitled to between 30 June and 17 September 2021.

Outlining the facts of the case during his sentencing remarks today, Judge Devlin said the offences came to light then the 91-year-old victim wrote an £800 cheque to pay for heating oil but was “considerably surprised” when he cheque was not honoured due to insufficient funds.

The lady and a relative went through her statements and found that over a period of around ten weeks, five cheques had been written out and cashed “for substantial amounts.”

The judge said the cheques were in the sums of £20,000, £15,000, £1,300 and two for £2,000 making the total of £40,300 and having discovered the frauds, she “then referred the matter to the police.”

“Police enquiries revealed that the cheques were all made payable to you,” the judge told Gregg adding that when officers searched her home, they found a cheque book and pass book in the victim’s name.

During police questioning, Gregg claimed that her elderly aunt by marriage had given her the money “because she didn’t want the family to fight over it and she wanted you to have it all.”

Gregg further claimed that while she had written out the cheques that was because the victim “had difficulty writing” but she maintained the 91-year-old had signed each of the cheques, even in the face of a hand writing expert conceding they had all been forged and a further statement from the victim that she had not signed them.

Asked for any possibly explanation the defendant tried to blame her victim, telling police that “she is a 90-year-old woman whose memory is maybe not that good but that’s all I’m saying about it.”

Judge Devlin said the stolen monies had all been spent by Gregg on “routine household bills” and the defendant buying herself a new car at £12,000.

Turning to issues regarding sentence, the judge said there were multiple aggravating factors including the “gross breach of trust,” that the elderly and vulnerable had been significantly impacted by the offences, the period over which the frauds were committed and the pre-planning and premeditated nature of the offences.

He said Gregg’s guilty pleas and full restitution being made were mitigating features but he added that “it must be remembered” that in paying back the money Gregg had only put the victim back in the position she was in “before you took monies you were not entitled to.”

He also emphasised that making restitution “does not make an unexceptional case exceptional” and warned that in the large majority of fraud cases, particular where there’s a breach of trust and sizeable sums are stolen, “ that custodial sentence are almost inevitable.”

Gregg’s offending was just such as case and accordingly, he imposed the 16 month sentence with eight months in jail and eight under supervised licence conditions.