'Lady Glanister' stole £330,000 from the residents of her care homes to buy diamonds, cruises and champagne



Jenny Glanister bought an £18,000 diamond broach during TV channel shopping sprees

She also bought 15 fur coats, a lavish cruise and magnums of champagne

She stole personal money from care home residents

Judge jails her for 32 months for 'wholesale plundering'

Jailed: 'Lady' Jenny Glanister, 51, who took £338,000 from the care home where she worked and its residents

With a penchant for expensive jewellery and fur coats, Jenny Glanister liked to think of herself as a member of the aristocracy.

But the self-styled 'Lady Glanister' was behind bars yesterday after stealing more than £330,000 from the care homes where she worked to fund a luxury lifestyle of cruises, magnums of champagne and diamond jewellery.

A court heard the 51-year-old accountant became hooked on a television shopping channel – splashing out £233,000 on 180 items of jewellery during a six-year spending spree.

Many of the packages from the Rocks & Co channel, which included an £18,000 diamond brooch, were ordered under the Lady Glanister name she had adopted.

In reality, Glanister – the daughter of a respectable couple who ran their own furniture business for 60 years – was a crooked finance manager responsible for two care homes treating adults with learning difficulties.

Between 2004 and 2010 she stole a total of £338,805 from the homes and residents' personal accounts.

She was jailed on Tuesday for 32 months by a judge who said she was guilty of 'wholesale plundering' and a breach of trust.

The court heard Glanister was trusted with the accounts of Oakfield Ltd, which runs two care homes in Northamptonshire.

However, she used her role to funnel cash from the homes and residents into her own bank account.

When police searched her then home in the village of Whiston, Northamptonshire, they found 15 fur coats, racks of designer clothes, unopened bottles of champagne and a receipt for a £3,400 cruise.

They also discovered packets of jewellery which had been addressed to 'Lady Glanister'. The court heard Glanister was in charge of Oakfield’s accounts for its homes in the villages of Easton Maudit, near Wellingborough, and Yardley Hastings, near Northampton.

Con: Oakfield care home in Yardley Hastings; Glanister, who has been jailed for 32 months, was in charge of the accounts

She was trusted with debit cards, petty cash and residents' personal finances.

Prosecutor Kathryn Howarth told Northampton Crown Court that the fraud was uncovered when Glanister left the company in 2010.

Her successor discovered 'serious and alarming anomalies' in the firm's accounts.

Glanister, she said, had used the firm's accounts to pay her heating bills and petrol for her car, inflated her salary and paid herself for extra hours not worked, then forged spreadsheets to cover her tracks.

It was found that £72,923 had been taken from the homes' petty cash, £227,000 in cheques cashed from the accounts and £17,272 by claiming for additional hours Glanister had not worked.

More than £2,000 was charged to Oakfield for the cost of fuel for her home and £17,000 to the residents' personal accounts.

Glanister also charged tights and spray tan to the residents' accounts.

Families of some adults at the homes reported difficulties in obtaining money from their relatives’ accounts and complaints were made.

Toby Long, defending, said Glanister stole the money because she felt 'undervalued'.

Jenny Glanister's grand house in the village of Whiston, Northamptonshire

He added: 'The money was not needed and to some extent it was stealing for comfort or control in which she perhaps lacked the ability to control her life.'

Glanister, who now lives in Great Billing, Northampton, admitted eight counts of theft, fraud and false accounting.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Fowler warned her: ‘This is effectively theft and a breach of trust.

'You pleaded guilty to obtaining over a third of a million pounds from your employer.

'You were aware of precisely what you were doing and precisely what consequences there would be.'

He said she was 'responsible for wholesale plundering involving a vast number of transactions'.

Joan Bohl, whose disabled daughter Alexa was at one of the homes, said Glanister was 'ghastly' and her actions defied description.

Fraud: The Oakfield care home in Easton Maudit; the care home and its residents were targeted

'My daughter is 32 but she has a mental age of 18 months,' she said.

'When her carer asked for some of her money to buy her a toothbrush Jenny Glanister said there was none available. In the meantime this creature was buying 15 furs and blowing £233,000 on the shopping channel.'

A spokesman for Northamptonshire County Council said the homes were not council-owned or run, but the authority did place residents there.