A son who embezzled nearly £30,000 that was supposed to be used for his vulnerable mum’s care has narrowly avoided going to prison.
Greg Shearer admitted siphoning off the tens of thousands of pounds that were supposed to pay for his mother’s treatment at a neurological care centre in Aberdeen.
The 28-year-old supermarket worker had been given the responsibility of controlling his mum’s finances when she entered the care home.
However, he soon breached her trust by using the money for himself and frittering it away.
Sheriff William Summer told Shearer he had committed a “despicable offence” that saw him take “shameless advantage” of his vulnerable mother.
Son had not been paying for mum’s care
Fiscal depute Brian Young told the court that due to her declining health, Shearer’s mum was moved into a specialist neurological care centre that provided rehabilitation for her particular disorder in January 2020.
At this time, Shearer was appointed to look after her finances as her next of kin and took possession of her debit card.
On March 7 2022, Shearer’s mother was made aware by her care manager that there was an outstanding balance of £7,000 on her account in relation to her care.
Due to the belief that her son had been managing her finances, arrangements were made to obtain her bank statement and for a new debit card to be ordered.
As soon as the current debit card was cancelled, Shearer stopped visiting his mother at the care home and never queried why the card had been cancelled, which raised suspicions.
Upon receiving the bank statement, staff at the care home called the police to report that Shearer’s mother had been the victim of fraud.
The bank statement showed that between January 1 2020 and April 21 2022, at various bank machines around Aberdeen, Shearer had withdrawn £29,414.
Shearer’s mum confirmed that she had no knowledge of any of these transactions, nor had she given her son permission to make the withdrawals.
On February 7 2023, Shearer was arrested.
Appearing in the dock, Shearer pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement.
‘Frittered money away’
Defence solicitor Gregor Kelly told the court that his client had been put in charge of managing his mother’s finances but that due to his “limited intellect” he wasn’t up to the task.
“As her only son, his mum had told him that all she had would one day be his, but he took this far too literally and that didn’t entitle him to do what he did – it’s a significant breach of trust,” the solicitor said, adding that Shearer told him he had “frittered the money away”.
“As someone who works in a supermarket, he will do his best to repay these funds.
“What he did spiralled out of control and one day he hopes to rebuild a relationship with his mother.”
Sheriff Summers told Shearer: “This is a deplorable offence that involved taking shameless advantage of the trust put in you by your vulnerable mother.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Summers made Shearer subject to a community payback order with supervision for three years and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
He also ordered Shearer, of Victoria Road, Aberdeen, to repay his mum £10,000 in compensation.
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