A fundraising campaign has been launched for a pensioner with dementia who was fleeced out of her £54,000 life savings by her carer.
Maria McCalla raided the bank account of Vera Haselden, 82, to pay for a gastric band operation, her children’s private school fees, games consoles and clothes.
The elderly woman had hired McCalla to help her maintain her independence, but she has now been forced to move out of her own home and into care because of the fraud.
After reading about the case in the Standard, charity campaigner Charlotte Tarrant set up a fund to try to restore Ms Haselden’s savings and get her back into her own home.
“It was obviously a very sad story, but I really believe people power can sort this out for Vera,” she said.
“I think the public are so generous sometimes, especially with vulnerable people. It’s an easy thing to do, to set up a donation page, and I really hope it can get sorted out.”
Ms Haselden hired McCalla, 31, in April 2014, but within two months the carer had started withdrawing large sums of money from the pensioner’s bank account using her PIN and card.
She convinced Ms Haselden to write out cheques for £10,000 and £6,000 and withdrew a total of £38,000 over the bank counter. But McCalla knew she could not pay the money back as she had spiralling debts on 17 different credit cards.
McCalla, a mother-of-two from Wembley, was jailed for 32 months at Harrow crown court after admitting fraud and theft. However, she is now living off benefits — making it unlikely she will be able to pay any money back.
Ms Tarrant, 39, of Stoke Newington, said her work with charities tackling mental health issues inspired her to launch the fundraising effort. “Having worked in the mental health field for quite a few years, that the story was to do with mental health and dementia made it catch my eye,” she said.
She said the case of pensioner Alan Barnes — for whom the public raised £330,000 after he was mugged last year — was also an inspiration in her efforts to help Ms Haselden.
“We have seen it in the past, people being generous in situations like this,” she said. “Vera deserves to get her savings back.”
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