Julie Atkins, 68, assisted Laurna Porter, 69, in laundering the stolen money which had been plundered from 23 family estates over a 13-year period, a court heard
Two conwomen have been jailed for a total of more than six years after they conned £634,000 from the estates of the bereaved, manipulating wills to their advantage.
Laurna Porter, 69, a probate manager, pocketed cash meant for beneficiaries while employed at a law firm and funnelled it into the bank account of her accomplice, Julie Atkins, 68. The duo was caught after a 13-year spree during which Porter looted from 23 family estates, diverting funds intended for charities like Cancer Research and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
The pair were nabbed at their homes in Tamworth, Staffordshire, in April 2018 and faced justice at Stafford Crown Court. Porter received a four-year sentence after pleading guilty to fraud by abuse of position and money laundering, while Atkins was handed a sentence of two-and-a-half years for money laundering post-trial. Judge John Edwards condemned their “rank greed” and remarked on the disgrace they faced as elderly women of previously good standing.
He told them: “For each of you I recognise that as ladies of retirement age of good character this must be an ignominious experience of standing in the dock of any Crown Court. But having heard the evidence in the trial which you, Miss Atkins, had, I’m quite satisfied that both of you were in this together. And I attribute your joint motive to rank greed, no more, no less. You betrayed the considerable trust and in many occasions deep affection reposed in you by those in the closing years of their life. This was sustained and well planned dishonesty. In both your cases appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody.”
Porter, a probate manager at a law practice and a firm of solicitors, who blew kisses to her family from the dock as she was sentenced, is said to have pinched over £600,000 from various clients between 2006 and 2018. It’s reported that she directed the majority of this money originally from estates of the deceased to the accounts of Atkins, who happened to be a family friend.
Some of the stolen funds were then shared back into Porter’s account. Our sources reveal that Porter specifically targeted victims without close kin, assuming her deceptive actions would typically go unnoticed. These unlawful payments in the financial records were often masked either as a debt owed by the estate or a generous gift. The scammed meant that beneficiaries such as charities, local hospices, animal charities, and family and friends of the deceased lost out.
However, their scheme collapsed when Porter switched firms and an inconsistency was detected related to one of the wills, involving a suspicious £5,000 payment to Atkins. Following this, an audit by both firms where she had previously worked exposed the deceptive money transfers. Detective Sergeant Andrew Shorthouse, from Staffordshire Police, commented after the sentencing: “We welcome the judges sentences given to Laurna Porter and Julie Atkins.
“The fraud was targeted and systematic over a long period of time and could not have been successful without the repeated dishonest actions of both. Porter held a position where trust had to be placed in her by those whose estates she managed; that trust was breached.”
Anamarie Coomansingh, a Specialist Prosecutor from the CPS, stated: “This was a calculated fraud over a period of 13 years, which generated a significant amount of money. Laurna Porter breached her legal duties as a probate manager and abused her position of trust in taking funds from life-saving charities, as well as from families of the deceased. It must have been particularly distressing for the families and friends, who simply want to see their loved one’s last wishes properly executed. The CPS will now seek to recover any available criminal proceeds from the defendants, in order to compensate the beneficiaries.”
