Care company fraudster pocketed £300k from elderly

A care company boss defrauded service users of more than £300,000, according to a report.

Peter Hunter, who ran Wakefield-based Caring For You (Yorkshire) Limited, assumed power of attorney for his victims to pay money into his personal bank account. He was jailed for more than six years on Monday.

A report by West Yorkshire Trading Standards, released after sentencing, said among the victims was his mother, from whom he pocketed £32,691.89 of benefits.

Linda Davis, head of Trading Standards (Protecting Communities), said: "Families placed their trust in Hunter to provide them with care, and his actions have caused immense stress and worry to those victims and their families."

Hunter, of Smithy Brook Lane in Dewsbury, was sentenced to six years and nine months at Leeds Crown Court.

He had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by abuse of position, with the offences said to have taken place between 2011 and 2021.

The total value of the fraud is calculated at £330,370.69, with proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 set to recover monies for the victims.

The court heard Hunter, who ran the private care service, systematically abused his position of trust by obtaining power of attorney for several clients and using that authority to manipulate care arrangements for personal financial gain.

Prosecutors said that care packages were deliberately inflated beyond the clients' actual needs, generating excessive charges for services in order to benefit himself.

One case involved a victim who was isolated from family and friends, leaving her entirely dependent on Hunter.

He controlled all her finances, became executor of her will, and after her death, submitted fraudulent invoices to claim her entire estate.

The total value of fraud against this victim was £149,096.33, of which £4,000 was paid back, and the amount taken from the estate was £46,424.25.

Similarly, several years later he obtained power of attorney for another client, who was in her 90s and lived on her own, and isolated her from family.

Hunter took complete control of her finances and encouraged changes to be made to her will.

The value of this fraud was £148,582.47, of which £55,320 was paid back.

In the case of his mother, who is now 98, he became appointee and collected her benefits and winter fuel allowance.

The total value of fraud was £32,691.89, of which £2,471.47 has been paid back.

Giles Hunter told the court his brother's crimes had caused a family divide that was "one of the hardest things I've ever had to face".

A family member of another victim said in a statement that their mother had been a vulnerable woman who had placed her trust in someone who was meant to support and protect her.

"Instead, she appears to have signed away everything she had in order to receive that care," they said.

"I do not know whether she truly understood what she was agreeing to, and that uncertainty will stay with me forever."

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