TENDERLY cradling her two-month-old son, Gemma Thomas is filled with unconditional love.
“I look at his sweet face and I feel so protective towards him,” says Gemma, 26.
Gemma Thomas, 26, discovered that her mum had spent every penny of her £50k inheritance[/caption]
Katherine Hill, 53, was jailed for 30 months earlier this month[/caption]
“I can’t ever imagine doing anything that would ever hurt him.”
It’s an instinct that brings mixed emotions – because becoming a mum herself has made it all the more difficult for Gemma to understand her own mum’s despicable actions.
Earlier this month, Katherine Hill, 53, was jailed for 30 months for stealing £50,000 from Gemma and her younger sister, Jessica, 22, a nurse.
The siblings had been left the money by their maternal grandmother Margaret, who died in her 70s in 2013.
Katherine was a trustee of the cash, which was bequeathed on the condition that the girls could access it when they turned 25 or wanted to buy a house.
It was only when Gemma asked to receive her share in 2018 in order to put a deposit down that she discovered her own mum had spent every single penny.
“I adored my mother, she was my best friend,” Gemma says.
“The betrayal of what she has done, especially now I am a mother myself, has devastated me.
“It has destroyed our relationship forever, she’s never once said sorry.
“Mum was an only child and had a very difficult relationship with her own mother. They clashed and would go months without speaking.
“Mum always told me and Jessica how important it was to her that we were close and had no secrets. I confided in her about absolutely everything – even the first time I had sex as a teenager.
“I felt safe sharing everything with her. I trusted in her love completely.”
But Gemma, from Port Talbot, South Wales, says her mum’s behaviour changed dramatically when her grandmother died 12 years ago, around the same time she filed for divorce from her father, Christopher Thomas, 54, a train driver.
“Mum and Dad had been together since they were 17,” she says.
‘Unwanted burden’
“She soon began to enjoy her freedom, going on dates all the time. At first it was fun having the house to ourselves but then she’d leave us for days on end. I was only 16 and Jessica was 12. I became my sister’s surrogate mother.
“I asked Mum to stay at home with us sometimes but being with her boyfriend mattered more. Me and Jessica became like an unwanted burden to her.”
Things came to a head when their dad became aware that the girls were being left and they went to live with him instead – an arrangement that exacerbated the tensions.
“She just didn’t care if she saw us or not,” Gemma says.
Gemma and younger sister, Jessica, 22, had been left the money by their maternal grandmother Margaret, who died in her 70s in 2013[/caption]
Gemma, from South Wales, says her mum’s behaviour changed dramatically when her grandmother died 12 years ago, around the same time she filed for divorce[/caption]
“The rejection was so painful. It was as if she’d become a completely different person to the mum we’d loved so much.
“I remember at the school prom, everyone’s mum was there apart from mine. It was really horrible, lots of people coming up to me asking where she was.
It has destroyed our relationship forever, she’s never once said sorry
Gemma
“Then it was Jessica’s birthday and she came to see her but said she couldn’t stop as she was going out with her boyfriend and his family.”
With the divorce almost finalised, the sisters and their dad moved back into the marital home, while Katherine moved in with her boyfriend, Philip Lloyd, a window cleaner, 20 minutes away.
“I remember at court Mum fighting Dad for custody of our family dog, Oscar,” says Gemma. “But she never fought for custody of us.”
Looking back, Gemma recalls conversations with her mum about booking holidays abroad with her partner and a new hot tub she had bought.
“She even had a tummy tuck.
“I remember wondering how on earth she could afford it,” says Gemma.
“She had a job in customer services for Lloyds bank and didn’t earn a huge amount. But she had also inherited around £40,000 from our grandmother so we didn’t question it.”
Then one day Gemma discovered her mum had blocked both of her daughters’ phone numbers.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “We had no idea why.”
But Gemma needed to get in touch because, now 18 and working for an insurance company, she wanted access to her share of the inheritance to put down as a deposit for a house.
“I called her from my partner’s phone because I was blocked,” she says. When she picked up, I said ‘It’s Gemma’ and Mum said ‘Who’s Gemma?’ She was so cold.
‘TRUST YOUR TRUSTEES’
By Alex Lloyd
The lure of having access to money can be too much for some people entrusted with the inheritance of a minor.
“I have seen this happen before – and with hundreds of thousands of pounds,” says Jessica Partridge, head of tax and trusts at Mayo Wynne Baxter.
“Stealing in this way is not only a breach of trust on the civil side of the law, with the intended beneficiaries able to call the money back in, but a criminal matter too.”
She advises anyone planning to bequeath money to a minor to be clear of the conditions in their will and think carefully about who will best manage it.
“You need to completely trust your trustees,” she says.
“If you think for a second they could go and spend it, even if they are the child’s parent, but there is no one else to do the job, appoint a solicitor.
“If that isn’t an option, pick another person you have faith in and be specific to whoever is drafting the will that it must not be discharged to the parents at any stage.”
“I asked her if I could have access to my inheritance early for the deposit on a house.
Her voice changed completely and she started spluttering and told me it wasn’t my money and that I was too young to buy a house anyway.”
‘Too cowardly’
Suspicious, Gemma managed to obtain a copy of her grandmother’s will from the solicitor, who launched a civil investigation to track the money down.
After a few months, the sisters discovered the terrible truth – their entire inheritance was gone.
The police were called in and they questioned Katherine about the missing money.
She denied stealing it, before outrageously claiming her father, Gerald Hill, 93, had been withdrawing it and putting envelopes through her daughters’ letterbox – a story he backed up, saying it was to stop the girls “harassing” her.
The pair went on trial at Swansea Crown Court in April 2024, with Hill refusing to be cross-examined.
“She was too cowardly,” Gemma says. “I had to stand up and testify against my own mother and she let me do it rather than admit what she had done.
“I was shaking terribly giving evidence, I felt so nervous. I thought: ‘What if the jury believe her?’”
The jury heard that Hill had been a trustee of the cash, along with her father.
Once probate was complete in 2016, she put it into a Barclays Everyday Saver account in their joint names, despite being advised to invest it properly.
The account allowed instant access and both she and her dad, who had been divorced from the girls’ grandmother, had bank cards for it.
Mum showed no emotion whatsoever. I had hoped for some repentance but there was none
Gemma
“Mum just sat there shaking her head, looking at me in disgust, as if she was the wronged party and I was the guilty one,” Gemma says.
“I’ve never felt so betrayed.”
Bank statements proved that ten withdrawals drained the account between March 2016 and March 2017, including one for £15,000, others for £10,000 and a single transfer of £2,300 directly into Hill’s account.
Looking back, Gemma recalls conversations with her mum about booking holidays abroad with her partner[/caption]
‘Greed and spite’
The cash withdrawals all took place at a branch just yards from where Hill worked.
“Mum even claimed she’d paid for an operation for our family’s boxer dog which Jessica had agreed to, even though Jessica was only 12 at the time,” Gemma says.
Hill swore in an affidavit that she had posted the full £50,000 cash through the girls’ letterbox in an envelope – but the jury saw through her lies, finding her guilty of fraud by abuse of power.
Her father was also convicted of the same crime, but lawyers and the judge stressed he had been a “stooge”.
“Jess and I held hands and just sobbed when the verdict came back,” says Gemma. It meant so much to be heard and believed.
“Mum showed no emotion whatsoever. I had hoped for some repentance but there was none.”
Hill, of Pontedawe, was sentenced to 30 months in prison, while her father, from Swansea, was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 18 months.
The judge, Recorder Greg Bull KC, described the defendants as “thoroughly dishonest people”.
He told Hill he was satisfied she was the instigator of the “scam” who was “so annoyed that your daughters received more money than you, that you took their inheritance”.
“You did it in greed and spite,” he said, adding she used the money “as a weapon against your own daughters”. I can’t imagine a more cynical breach of trust than this,” he concluded.
At a later Proceeds of Crime hearing, earlier this month, it was calculated that the sum stolen would be now worth £65,000 with inflation.
Hill was ordered to repay £50,000 within three months or face a further six-month jail time, while her father was ordered to pay £6,000 for his part or face three months inside.
You think if your mother doesn’t love you, who will?
Gemma
The deadline for payment is September and Gemma thinks they may get the money from her grandfather, as the court ensured he had capacity to pay before calculating his share.
“If he has to go to jail, I’ll feel bad for him as he was manipulated by his daughter,” she says.
Her mum is already out of prison, having been released on a tag part way into her sentence.
Gemma does not know whether Hill will cough up or endure a second stint behind bars.
“She claims to have no assets and her boyfriend said she had not invested a penny in his house,” she says. “But the judge was clear that at least £35,000 had been sunk into it from my mum over the years they have been together.
“She even built a bar in the garden and bought him a pool table.
“The right thing would be remortgaging to pay for it. I can’t put into words the pain she has caused us,” Gemma says. “You think if your mother doesn’t love you, who will?
“I think what the judge said was right. She was jealous that we had been left part of what she thought was her money and also upset that we chose to live with dad instead.
“It makes me sad that she was happy to put her 93-year-old father on the stand to testify but wouldn’t be questioned herself. The poor man couldn’t even articulate his words properly. It was pitiful.
“When I look at my son and feel so much love, I wonder how she could do this to her own flesh and blood?
“Her betrayal has left me with major trust issues in my relationships and I have a lot of social anxiety. I’ve needed counselling to cope with everything.”
After all the heartache and lies, Gemma is now completely estranged from her mum and says she will never be allowed to meet her new grandson.
She doubts they will ever see a penny of the money owed, the lack of which means both she and Jessica have to rent their homes as the cost of living makes it harder to save a deposit.
“The court case was more about the principle and getting justice than getting the money back, for us.
“Despite everything, Jessica and I are closer than ever and we are so grateful to our amazing dad. We couldn’t have got through this without him,” she says.
“But I don’t think I will ever be able to forgive my mum. If I’m honest, in my heart, I no longer feel like I have a mum.”
