A woman who emptied the bank account of her dying husband is counting the cost of her actions after her stepchildren brought the case to court.
Judges in Tenerife has heard how the woman withdrew over 120,000 euros from her husband’s bank account during a two-month period when he was terminally ill in hospital, despite knowing that he wanted to leave the money to his children from his first marriage.
At the time of his death aged 80, only 6000 euros remained in the bank for her five adult stepchildren, who reported the matter to police.
Justifying her actions, the woman argued that the money was needed for work on the couple’s home to make it safe for his return when discharged from hospital. However, she was unable to provide evidence of the work carried out and the argument was contradicted by her own admissions that she was looking for a care home for his final days.
In all, around 30 transfers for amounts ranging from 1000 to 12,000 euros were made from the terminally ill man’s account shortly after he granted her a lasting power of attorney to deal with his affairs.
The court heard that the deceased had made it clear that he did not want joint assets in the marriage, insisted on having separate accounts, and left instructions that his money was to go to his grown-up children.
The woman has been sentenced by judges at Tenerife’s Criminal Court to two years imprisonment, which is likely to be suspended given her lack of previous convictions, and ordered to repay the missing 122,000 euros to her stepchildren.
