A care home in the British West Midlands has been investigated for a £175,000 ($233,600) document-fraud scheme that led to the use of illicit proceeds to fund a gambling habit.
The care facility, Amberley Care Home in Brierley Hill, is at the centre of a fraud case involving one of its elderly residents, Rita Barnsley.
Fake will was crafted to fund a gambling habit
The 85-year-old was preyed upon by a former manager of the care home, Jamiel Slaney-Summers, and her last will was found to be illegally forged.
When a buzzer went off in Rita’s room in January 2021, two care workers attended believing she needed help.
They were instead greeted by their manager Slaney-Summers who demanded they sign a document as witnesses – with a key section folded over.
That document was a sham will pic.twitter.com/szijTzRZKK
— Jamie Roberton (@jamiemroberton) October 27, 2025
Slaney-Summers worked alongside the owners of the care home, Graham and Lyn Walker, to alter the vulnerable elderly residents’ documents. This left Lyn Walker and Slaney-Summers as the sole beneficiaries of Mrs Barnsley’s estate.
In the release from Dudley Council, the tale of document tampering was described as a “sham” and “different handwriting and coloured pens used throughout (the document).”
The presiding Judge, the Honourable Judge John Butterfield KC, was vocal in referring to the fraud as “shocking” and “outrageous.” He commended the work of the Dudley Council Trading Standards Officers, Kuldeep Maan and Mark Beesley, for bringing the issue to the court.
Slaney-Summers sentenced
Both Maan and Beesley responded to a complaint lodged by one of Mrs Barnsley’s family, her cousin Verna. In hunting down the leads from the concerns raised, both investigators found that Slaney-Summers had been withdrawing money to fund a gambling habit.
The 65-year-old, according to the report, “took £6,000 from the vulnerable pensioner by using her bank card to make regular withdrawals to fund a gambling addiction.”
Slaney-Summers was sentenced to a five-and-a-half-year custodial sentence in Wolverhampton Crown Court for her actions.
Councillor Phil Atkins, cabinet member responsible for trading standards, said, “Slaney-Summers was guilty of an horrific abuse of trust and was fully intent on fleecing this poor, vulnerable woman of every penny she had worked her whole life to earn.”
Graham and Lyn Walker are awaiting sentencing. As Mr Walker is unable to attend due to health issues, the court date has been deferred.
“The fact she (Slaney-Summers) was not allowed to get away with it is down to the lady’s family and a long and painstaking investigation by our superb trading standards team,” concluded Atkins.
In response to the situation, Chris Badger, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care at the CQC, stated: “This [Amberley care Home trial] is a deeply concerning case and shows how important it is for there to be robust measures in place to root out this type of abuse to keep people safe.
“In light of this verdict, we will be considering what further regulatory action we may take and how this will inform our work in helping to keep people safe from abuse such as this.”
Featured image: Dudley Council
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