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By Jamie Roberton and Jane Deith Rita Barnsley’s stay at Amberley Care Home was only meant to be temporary. The former Woolworths worker had broken her hip in a fall at home, where she had led an isolated life but took pleasure in listening to the Test Match Special and drinking whisky. Almost instantly upon her admission for respite care, the 85-year-old was the target of an elaborate plot to steal her estate using a fake will. The fraudsters? The owners and manager of the care home, who abused their position of trust to pursue profit. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has exclusively told Channel 4 News that it is now considering “further regulatory action” following the case. This is the inside story of an extraordinary and chaotic trial, that will further fuel alarm about the potential scale of financial abuse against the elderly across the UK. Rita Barnsley’s admission With no immediate family and a valuable estate, Miss Barnsley’s arrival at the care home in Dudley in May 2020 soon placed her in the crosshairs of Jamiel Slaney-Summers. The care home manager began favouring Miss Barnsley, spending more time with her than any other resident, even, according to colleagues, “lying on her bed on occasions”. At the same time, the mobile phone that Miss Barnsley had entered with disappeared and efforts of her only living relative to speak to her through the main home telephone were continually frustrated. “They wouldn’t let me speak to her on the phone. There was always an excuse as to why I couldn’t speak to her.” – Verna Woolley “They wouldn’t let me speak to her on the phone,” Verna Woolley, Miss Barnsley’s cousin, said. ”There was always an excuse as to why I couldn’t speak to her.” Ms Slaney-Summers’ plan was in motion. The sham will When a buzzer went off in Miss Barnsley’s room in January 2021, two care workers attended believing she needed assistance. They were instead greeted by their manager, Ms Slaney-Summers, who demanded that they sign a document with the key section of the paperwork folded over. The pair had unwittingly made themselves witnesses to a fraudulent will, created using multiple different styles of writing and coloured pens. All part of an effort for Ms Slaney-Summers to steal the majority of Miss Barnsley’s estate, worth an estimated £175,000. That forged last will and testament, dated 12 January 2021, appointed Jamiel Slaney-Summers and Lyn Walker – the co-owner of the care home – as executors. In Miss Barnsley’s made-up words, Ms Slaney-Summers was left 50% of the estate for the “happiness and laughter she gave me, she became a close friend”, while Mrs Walker was left 25% of the property’s value for “allowing me to stay in her lovely home”. The will also claimed to have left staff at the care home £5,000 each for the care given. Surviving relative’s alarm Rita Barnsley died on 5 August 2021. Attempts to execute her will were made just four days after her death. Enter into the story Graham Walker, Lyn’s husband of 53 years. Mr Walker appeared in a jovial mood as he made a call to Glover and Priest Solicitors to inform them that his wife had been made a beneficiary of Miss Barnsley’s will and that he intended to now sell her property. He later gratefully received advice from the solicitors on preferred estate agents and companies who could clear Miss Barnsley’s home ready for sale. Ms Woolley’s suspicions escalated when she saw a copy of her cousin’s apparent last wishes. “That’s when I decided I needed to do something – I was just so angry and felt so sorry for her.” – Verna Woolley “That’s when I decided I needed to do something – I was just so angry and felt so sorry for her,” she said. With the help of her family, Ms Woolley made a complaint to West Midlands Police and the Care Quality Commission. Running for cover As soon as they were alerted to Verna Woolley’s complaints upon their return from a cruise, the Walkers attempted to rapidly backtrack. On 13th September 2021, Graham Walker called the solicitor to say that he and his wife no longer wanted anything to do with the will. The solicitors – who had received calls from Ms Woolley – replied: “Is Verna giving you trouble?” Mr Walker said he now believed there was something “fishy” about the will and that Ms Slaney-Summers had “roped us in”. In another call to the solicitors, Mr Walker said: “I can assure you that we have had nothing whatsoever to do with it.” Mr Walker even alleged that Ms Slaney-Summers had replied, “F*** Verna” when challenged about the veracity of the will. Ms Slaney-Summers appeared unaware of the growing suspicions when she called the same solicitors in early October to ask: “Could you tell me how Rita Barnsley’s will is going please?” The solicitors, now aware of the serious concerns, quickly put her on hold. This was just the start of a long process in which the guilty parties “each ran for cover, blaming each other, trying to cover up their greed and dishonesty”. Courtroom toxicity The trio were charged with fraud, with Ms Slaney-Summers also accused of theft of more than £6,000 from Miss Barnsley. A trial was set for Wolverhampton Crown Court on 29 September – it soon descended into chaos. Ms Slaney-Summers claimed she had been originally appointed as manager to improve a “failing home” where there was already widespread financial abuse. In an attempt to deflect from her own integral role in the plot, Ms Slaney-Summers later claimed that she had confronted Lyn Walker to say that it would be “unethical” to accept money from Miss Barnsley’s will. “It’s a pack of lies,” Graham Walker said as he walked past the public gallery after the prosecution case was outlined. After their efforts to turn on each other were repeatedly exposed, there was an aggressive altercation between the defendants outside courtroom six. Ms Slaney-Summers went up to the Walkers and shouted in their faces: “You shouldn’t have tried to rob her, should ya?” As the wealth of evidence was revealed to the jury, Ms Slaney-Summers tried a different tactic to avoid justice. She claimed she could not attend court because of gastroenteritis. She was later spotted eating outside a bus stop. Her absence from court was then blamed on a mental health crisis, her husband bursting into the courtroom to say that her non-attendance was due to her making a serious attempt on her life near a local police station. The CCTV evidence contradicted this claim. At one stage, her own barrister asked a journalist attending: “Have you seen her?” Increasingly exasperated by the attempts to disrupt the trial, Judge Butterfield KC issued a warrant for Ms Slaney-Summers’ arrest and placed her in custody for repeated breaches of her bail conditions. Trial resumes The resumption of the trial saw the Walkers and Ms Slaney-Summers all take the stand. Graham and Lyn Walker each tried to stress to the jury that they did not need Miss Barnsley’s money, claiming they had upwards of £500,000 in savings. Mr Walker, growing angry at the line of questioning, told the court: “I am not a liar and I don’t like being called a liar.” “I am not a liar and I don’t like being called a liar.” – Graham Walker The barrister defending Ms Slaney-Summers’ replied: “Well brace yourself, Mr Walker.” It was later revealed in proceedings that Ms Slaney-Summers had contacted Miss Barnsley’s GP on the day after she had died to claim that the deceased “didn’t have a next of kin”. This was a constant theme throughout, with Ms Slaney-Summers repeatedly claiming that the “old school” Rita Barnsley did not view Verna Woolley as a “blood relative” because she had been adopted. This was not true, with Ms Woolley emotionally stating in her testimony to the jury: “We were cousins and we loved each other.” Ms Slaney-Summers also had an active online gambling account with Foxy Bingo “with a lot of money going in, a lot of money going out”, the court heard. Pressed on why she was withdrawing large amounts of money at cash points using Miss Barnsley’s bank card – with over £6,000 still unaccounted for – Ms Slaney-Summers claimed she spent thousands on incontinence pads for Miss Barnsley. The prosecution barrister replied: ”You are making it up as you go along, aren’t you?” Greed punished The jury took just one hour and 22 minutes to unanimously convict the trio of fraud after the four-week trial. Ms Slaney-Summers was also found guilty of stealing more than £6,000 from Miss Barnsley. No reaction was shown by any of the defendants as the verdicts were delivered, with sentencing scheduled for 5 December. Amberley Care Home is now operated by the Walkers’ only son, with the other residential care home owned by the couple – Cotteridge House – now shut down. Kuldeep Mann, Senior Trading Standards Officer at Dudley Council, said multiple further allegations had been received about Ms Slaney-Summers since the start of the trial. He said the complaints related to “multiple care homes”, adding: ”Our telephones have been ringing about other incidents and those incidents will be investigated.” ”Our telephones have been ringing about other incidents and those incidents will be investigated.” – Kuldeep Mann Channel 4 News also understands that suspicions that Rita Barnsley was being financially abused were reported six months before her death. A former employee of the home alerted the CQC, with the regulator then notifying social services. A full investigation, however, was not launched until Miss Barnsley had died and her cousin had complained to authorities. Police questions Ms Slaney-Summers and the Walkers would not have faced justice unless it were for Mr Mann’s Trading Standards Division at Dudley Council. Trading Standards, which has its own prosecution powers, pursued the case after West Midlands Police declined to investigate, claiming no police involvement was required. Asked why it did not conduct an investigation into Rita Barnsley’s case, a West Midlands Police spokesperson told Channel 4 News: “We liaised with other agencies and established that no further police involvement was required at that time. Fraud investigations are often complex and can involve a number of partner agencies and potential prosecuting authorities”. Kuldeep Mann said: “A lot of carer fraud cases do get referred to the police but, in my experience, they all come back where no further action has been taken. They’re either classed as a civil matter or classed as a non-crime and nothing is done”. He said police too often viewed cases of carer fraud as “too difficult” to investigate because of questions over a victim’s capacity, failing to assess whether there was controlling and coercive behaviour involved. Mr Mann said he had seen carer fraud carried out “in every setting imaginable”, revealing that he had previously investigated serving police officers, solicitors and accountants for alleged involvement. Carer fraud is a “national problem”. – Kuldeep Mann He described the crime as a “national problem” that must be confronted, warning that an ageing population and the state of social care would lead to a dramatic increase in cases. The CQC told Channel 4 News that the regulator would now consider further action. Chris Badger, the CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care, said: “This is a deeply concerning case and shows how important it is for there to be robust measures in place to root out this type of abuse to keep people safe. “In light of this verdict, we will be considering what further regulatory action we may take and how this will inform our work in helping to keep people safe from abuse such as this.” Remembering Rita Ms Woolley said: “It is awful when I knew, I sobbed because she hadn’t had a good life and for it to end like this is just awful”. “She hadn’t had a good life and for it to end like this is just awful.” – Verna Woolley What Ms Woolley considers as the final insult is the fact that Ms Slaney-Summers took Miss Barnsley to a different crematorium than the one she requested. She has never received her ashes.
