By Deborah McAleese
14 February 2009
The family of a blind 94-year-old grandmother, whose son and daughter-in-law have been jailed for six months for cheating her out of her home, said she has been left devastated by the fraud.
Husband and wife George Ignatius Martin and Mary Martin were jailed yesterday after they admitted forging land registry documents to transfer the elderly pensioner’s home into their name, while she lay ill in hospital.
Crown Court Judge Mr Justice Hart told the Martins that their greed had caused deep distress to their victim, Mrs Annie Martin, who was forced to live in a nursing home on her release from hospital, while her son and daughter-in-law lived in the Saintfield property they had cheated her out of.
Last night Mrs Martin’s family told the Belfast Telegraph that her life had been destroyed by the couple.
The fraud relates to a house at Downpatrick Street in Saintfield which the victim Mrs Annie Martin owned with her son George Ignatius Martin.
In 1997 Martin and his wife forged Mrs Annie Martin's signature so her daughter-in-law Mary's name would be added to land registry documents.
In 2002 the property was transferred from the three names to the names of George and Mary Martin after the couple again forged Mrs Martin's signature on a registry form.
Civil proceedings are now under way to have the property signed back to Mrs Annie Martin.
Her granddaughter Michelle Crawford told the Belfast Telegraph that while the family is pleased with the sentence imposed by the courts it will not change the fact that Mrs Martin has been left devastated by the actions of her son and daughter-in-law.
Abridged
SOURCE: Belfast Telegraph - UK
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