A DECEITFUL daughter stole £75,000 from her own mother who had dementia.

Claire Dupoy had been made power of attorney over elderly Jill Dadswell when she was put into a care home.

But Dupoy, 52, used the proceeds from the sale of her mother’s home on lavish luxuries including two cars, a caravan and a designer watch.

Dupoy, a former nursery owner, was only found out when Mrs Dadswell’s accounts ran dry and she was forced to leave her specialist dementia care home because there was not enough money left to pay the fees.

Dupoy, of Alexandra Road, Uckfield, confessed to stealing her mother’s legacy but when interviewed claimed her mother would have given her the cash if she had the mental capacity.

Hove Crown Court heard that Dupoy used the money to buy a caravan, a Toyota Rav 4, a Citroen car and a Breitling watch for husband Paul.

She also used stolen cash to pay for their eldest son James to complete a master’s degree at university.

She pleaded guilty to defrauding her mother of £75,000 by abuse of her position between July 2016 and June 2017.

Mrs Dadswell has now been forced to move to a council-run care home – paid for by taxpayers. Tragically when Mrs Dadswell, 79, was interviewed by police she did not know what money was and believed she was a little girl waiting for her parents.

She has not seen her daughter since the offences were uncovered.

Rio Pahlavanpour prosecuting said: “This was an abuse of a position of trust.

“The sale of Mrs Dadswell’s house was in May 2015, by August 2017 there was just over £1,000 left. There was an outstanding debt at the care home of £48,200. The victim was evicted from her care home and is now in a Bexhill home run by the local authority.

“A substantial amount of money was removed, around £92,000, and the crown accepts that £75,000 of that was fraudulent. There was nothing left at all.”

Amy Packham defending Dupoy said: “There are hugely unattractive features in this case”

But Miss Packham explained that Dupoy had a “considerable amount of pressure on her after her nursery business dissolved.

She said: “She had lost her business, she had been diagnosed with a condition that had killed her father. Her husband had a stroke. Her son Graham had complex needs.”

Judge Shani Barnes said: “It looks to me like a sense of entitlement.

“She felt her mum would rather she spent her money than the local authority, and the taxpayers can pay it.

“It’s one thing to say my mum always wanted to pay for my son’s university, it’s buying things like caravans and watches to reward her husband who had a stroke that’s harder to understand. It is not up to me to decide whether living off her mother all her life was right. That was the family dynamic.”

Sentencing Dupoy to 20 months in prison suspended for 24 months and ordering her to complete 100 hours of unpaid work

Judge Barnes said: “As her power of attorney you should have protected her interests and your guilty plea accepts you did not do that. I want you to spend as much time as you can at your mother’s bedside.

“You owe her a great deal.”