Woman goes on trial at Belfast Crown Court accused of conning her mum out of over £40,000

A BELFAST daughter has gone on trial accused of using forged signatures to con her elderly mother out of over £40,000, a jury has heard.

Prosecution lawyer David McClean told Belfast Crown Court it was the Crown case that at no time did 49-year-old Heather Ruth Noble have her mother’s permission to sign her name on the cheques.

He told the jury of seven women and five men that the alleged fraudulent behaviour took place between July 2006 and August 2008.

The lawyer said the indictment related to eleven specimen counts reflecting the total of 32 cheques allegedly forged by the daughter amounting to £41,000.

Noble, of Aughnabrack Road, north Belfast, denies the two charges of theft, two of forgery and a further seven of fraud by false representation.

The court heard the offences happened when her mother Johnina Noble was 78 or 79 years old and who had since died.

However Mr McClean told the jury a statement by Johnina Noble would be read to them in the course of the trial.

The alleged fraud began shortly after Noble moved in with her mother to help take care of her, he said.

The accused then bought the mother’s house on the Aughnbrack Road for the agreed sum of £100,000, less £18,000 for an outstanding mortgage, leaving £82,000 and allowing Mrs Noble Snr to live out her days in her former home with her daughter.

However, Mr McClean said it was while she was hospitalised between July and November 2006 that the fraud occurred and that evidence and exhibits would prove the defendant had written a £5,000 cheque to a kitchen company, £3,000 to clear a credit card debt and a £2,000 cheque to herself in that period and that all 32 cheques “had been signed dishonestly and without permission”.

After being arrested and questioned about the matter Noble admitted forging her mother’s signature but had claimed it was done with her mother’s permission and full knowledge.

He added that in her police statement Johnina had contested that and had “denied all knowledge” of the cheques, of ever having a credit card or giving her daughter permission to sign her name.

The trial continues.