Dying porter wanted to leave his life savings to the hospital that cared for him - he was betrayed by a greedy colleague
11.05.2022 - 21:29
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A greedy hospital office worker has escaped prison for fleecing £19,000 from the estate of a porter with no family who made her an executor of his will two days before he died of cancer.
Mother-of-two Kate Connelly, 41, who worked as a clerical officer at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, made a series of cash withdrawals to spend on herself, money that Ken Sutherland had stipulated go to the dementia and oncology wards at the hospital where he had worked as a much-loved porter and which had cared for him in his final days.
But today (Wednesday) debt-ridden Connelly sobbed in court as a judge spared her a jail sentence because of concerns about who would care for her 13-year-old son if she was jailed.
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Mr Sutherland regularly worked with Connelly and a cardio physiologist at the hospital, Nadine Angel-Hart, and when he became ill with cancer in November 2018 he made a will, stipulating he split his £166,000 estate between the oncology unit and the dementia ward.
As he had no surviving family, the Stockport County fan made his two work colleagues joint executors on January 18, 2019, two days before he died. A joint Natwest 'legacy account' was set up at the suggestion of Connelly, who already had an account at the same bank, a court was told.
Both executors were issued bank cards to 'manage the funds and to purchase any equipment or items for the two selected wards that would best benefit them and their patients', Sophie Kenny, prosecuting, told Minshull Street Crown Court.
After probate was completed, some £165,945.23 was paid into the account in December 2019 by Mr Sutherland's solicitors and