Stourbridge fraudster jailed for conning elderly out of thousands of pounds

Charlotte Sherwood was sentenced to three years in prison at Wolverhampton Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to fraud.

The case was brought to caught by Dudley Council's Trading Standards. The team had been investigating concerns that Sherwood, who lives at Albert Street, in Stourbridge, while trading under the name of CS Homecare Ltd, had wrongly taken £20,000 from an elderly man she provided care for.

The team also identified another victim who 46-year-old Sherwood had been providing care for and had dishonestly transferred £40,000 from their bank account to her own.

Investigations also found that she had lied to the Care Quality Commission. She had told them she no longer provided personal care and therefore did not need to registered with them.

But, in fact, she had continued to provide personal care to an increasing number of clients.

The court heard that once Sherwood was aware she was being investigated, she transferred the money back to the victims. However, she continued to take direct payments from a victim's account, even though they were in a care home and she was providing no care to them.

Councillor Nicolas Barlow, Dudley Council's cabinet member for health and adult social care, said: “This is a shocking case of someone who had complete disregard for the rules around providing care in order to exploit innocent vulnerable people for her own financial gain.

“The sentencing sends a clear message that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated in our borough and I’m pleased this individual is off our streets and unable to deliberately exploit vulnerable people.

“We believe this is the first case in the country where trading standards have been able to prosecute a rogue carer who evaded CQC registration.”