Woman made uncle live in cellar with dogs and defrauded him of €227k

“Under the ruse of playing the doting and caring niece, Urvoy concocted a web of lies to defraud her elderly and sick uncle out of his life savings”

Neil Fetherstonhaugh

Today at 16:55

A “doting and caring niece” has been jailed for conning her 84-year-old uncle out of more than £200,000 (€227k) while condemning him to live in a cellar with her dogs.

Callous mother-of-six Pamela Urvoy (55) forcing him to live in squalor as she “concocted a web of lies to defraud her elderly and sick uncle out of his life savings”, according to police.

She has been given a four-year jail term for tricking businessman Michael Urvoy out of £280,000 of stocks and shares after he suffered a stroke in his late 60s which left him unable to sign documents or withdraw cash.

Rather than putting him in a nursing home, his niece had promised relatives she would look after him at a family meeting in 2008, at her home in Padiham, Lancashire.

Urvoy, who worked as a carer, suggested in 2013 they both buy a large property with land and stables in Oswaldtwistle, a village near Blackburn.

She had offered to contribute 50 per cent to the purchase of the property and share ownership equally with her uncle but she ensured the deeds to the house were signed over entirely to herself.

While her uncle contributed 100 per cent of the funds, he was not allowed to live upstairs in the house or dine with the rest of the family.

He was left “unkempt and unwashed” while demoted “to a sparsely furnished basement where they also kept dogs, despite his age and vulnerability”, prosecutors said.

Alex Bennie, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court that the plan was that he might have more living space for his proper care.

Pamela Urvoy would have significant stable space for the horses she had as part of her business which was described as “her dream”.

However, after a local social worker was alerted to the conditions Mr Urvoy was living in she discovered he would be taken down to the basement and left there for hours at a time.

he told the social worker he was not allowed to live upstairs in the house or dine with the rest of the family prompting an immediate investigation.

Mr Urvoy was taken from the house and placed into care but he died aged 84 in March last year, before the prosecution could be heard at Preston Crown Court.

Urvoy, who was convicted of two counts of fraud after a trial, was undergoing treatment for an aggressive cancer, Kristian Cavanagh, defending, said, but was fully prepared to go to prison.

Judge Graham Knowles KC told Urvoy: “You saw the opportunity in your uncle’s vulnerability.

“You showed no remorse at the trial and you have shown no remorse since. It doesn’t take a list of adjectives and adverbs from me to describe what you have done. The facts speak for themselves.”

The judge said Urvoy was facing the “daunting prospect of prison” when she was in poor health, but added: “You could have and should have pleaded guilty long ago.”

Detective Constable Jo Billington said: ‘Under the ruse of playing the doting and caring niece, Urvoy concocted a web of lies to defraud her elderly and sick uncle out of his life savings.’

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing will take place at a later date when the exact amount Urvoy benefitted from her fraud will be determined.

DC Jo Billington, from Lancashire Police, said: “Through no fault of his own the victim in this case found himself in a position where he was unable to independently look after himself or his finances.

“He then put his faith in a person he should have been able to trust – his niece Pamela Urvoy.

“Under the rouse of playing the doting and caring niece, Urvoy concocted a web of lies to defraud her elderly and sick uncle out of his life savings. She then attempted to con those responsible for facilitating the house purchase.

“Having worked to ensure his later years in life would be comfortable financially, it must have come as a great shock to find out that all of his money had gone. And the person responsible for doing that was a family member.

“Despite the evidential difficulties of the victim having died, the passage of time we will endeavour to seek truth and get justice for the victim.”