Two sisters are facing prison sentences for a £1.5million-plus fraud which saw a terrified north Cumbria company secretary issued with threats that her business would be finished and her children and grandchildren harmed.
Joanne Palmer, 40, and 38-year-old Stephanie Palmer made phone calls with a determined and relentless persistence during a dishonest scam over many months having targeted an Eden haulage firm.
A Carlisle Crown Court jury heard how the company secretary began receiving calls asking if she would like to advertise in magazines and online. She asked for paperwork to be sent in order to consider that proposition, but nothing arrived and no advertisements were ever placed nor invoiced for.
But the woman then began receiving calls claiming there was an outstanding balance to pay for what was non-existent advertising.
Numerous calls per day contained demands for payment, said prosecutor Tim Evans as he described the Palmer sisters going into overdrive.
Calls threatened that bailiffs would be at the woman’s home within the hour if she did not make the payments, said Mr Evans as he opened the case to jurors.
“They were abusive and threatened to finish her business,” he added, saying there were also chilling warnings that if she didn’t pay they were going to hurt her children and grandchildren.
Scared by the threats and amid concern for her family’s safety she began making payments, and was persuaded to hand over even more money as the sisters changed tack by promising to help recover cash if other funds were made available.
They were caught in the act after the woman’s daughter transferred calls to her own phone, pretended to be her mother and made recordings which were transferred to police. Concerns had previously been raised by bank staff concerned by enormous withdrawals.
Cash sums totalling £1.22 million had been made by that company with money then cascading through different bank accounts — some in the sisters’ names and others belonging to two other women who admit money laundering.
One, Kelly Shaw, 41, received tens of thousands of pounds while a fourth woman, Stephanie Charnock, 43, was involved in the transfer of criminal property in four-figure sums.
Jurors heard how the Palmer sisters also trained their sights on a second business, the Bridlington Shellfish Company on England’s east coast.
Again money was demanded in respect of non-existent advertising with just short of £300,000 being handed over.
“Telephone evidence in the case shows repeated phone calls made by the Palmers to their two targets,” alleged Mr Evans.
Phones and paperwork seized after the sisters’ arrests allowed detectives to painstakingly piece together what had happened and bring them to court.
Joanne Palmer and Stephanie Palmer went on trial having denied blackmailing both businesses, fraud and money laundering.
But as evidence was about to begin today, both admitted fraud against the two companies. As a result, the prosecution offered no evidence on the blackmail allegation. The money laundering charges will not be pursued with Judge Nicholas Barker observing they were really a function of the fraud.
Judge Barker adjourned the case and directed that the Palmers, along with Shaw, of Winterburn Green, and Charnock, of Maplecroft, both Stockport, should be sentenced on August 4.
Probation service pre-sentence reports have been ordered and all four defendants have been granted bail.
Judge Barker told Joanne and Stephanie Palmer: “You should not assume that because I am adjourning the sentence and ordering these pre-sentence reports that a custodial sentence is not in the court’s mind. It is, of course.”
