A young Salford mum stole £10,000 savings from her own grandad and pretended she had been robbed.
Amy Luck, 23, of Deane Road, Caddishead, cooked up the plan to steal the cash with partner, Jonathon Stevens, the night before she was due to collect it for her grandad, Barry Smith.
The premium bond savings had been transferred to Luck’s account and she was supposed to withdraw it from the Halifax bank in Eccles, Greater Manchester and take it to Mr Smith.
Instead, the money was stashed in Stevens’ stepfather’s garden, and Luck told her grandad she’d been robbed.
The robbery was reported, but the police officer interviewing Luck became suspicious and she confessed to the deception. All the cash was recovered.
The plot was described at Manchester Crown Court as amateurish and unsophisticated.
When Luck was rumbled, she told police: “I admit I’m lying. I’m very sorry. It’s so hard having that much money in my account when I don’t have a pot to piss in.”
The couple both pleaded guilty to theft. Luck also admitted perverting the course of justice by pretending to have been robbed.
Luck and Stevens were told by Mr Recorder Stuart Driver they had ‘escaped jail by the skin of their teeth’.
Luck, who is four months pregnant with Stevens’ child, was handed an eight month suspended prison sentence and ordered to observe a curfew for three months.
Stevens was also given an eight-month suspended sentence and ordered to do 70 hours unpaid work.
Sentencing the pair, Mr Driver said: “What you did to Amy Luck’s grandad was very low and mean behaviour and you should both be totally humiliated and ashamed.
“It is aggravated by the fact that it was planned and a severe breach of trust.”
The court was told Luck and her grandad had been very close and Mr Smith did not want a prosecution.
The couple, who currently look after Luck’s five-year-old daughter at their home, were embarrassed and ashamed, the court heard.
Picture courtesy of Colin Smith, with thanks.
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