A woman addicted to bingo stole from an elderly woman she was caring for.
According to online bingo news, Barbara Taylor, 58, was convicted of stealing £20,300 from her neighbor in order to fund her addiction. The victim, Elizabeth Bailey, is an elderly lady who depended upon Taylor to look after her and do her shopping. Taylor began with good intentions, running errands with the victim’s bank cards, but eventually the temptation proved to be too strong and she began withdrawing cash from an ATM located inside a bingo hall.
Some of the £20,000 was used for legitimate purposes, but approximately £11,000 went towards funding her habit, bingo sites have reported. The victim only discovered the theft when she realized her bank accounts were empty and she had outstanding bills to be paid by direct debit. Bingo blog sites report that Taylor has been jailed for 12 months.
It’s not the first time that we’ve read about bingo addiction, and it’s certainly something that online bingo companies take seriously. Although the cost of play is relatively low compared with many other forms of gambling, bingo sites are still concerned about addiction and credit card fraud and the industry has many measures in place to help players who might need assistance battling addiction.
In sentencing Taylor, the judge said that it was clear she had not spent the money on an extravagant lifestyle, but she needed to be aware that “stealing in this way is generally punished by immediate imprisonment”.