![\"Reading](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/81TX6WY12827OM51V2PW.jpg\")
Reading Crown Court<\/p>\nA man who defrauded a vulnerable, elderly dementia victim of more than \u00a343,000 has been warned to expect a prison sentence.<\/p>\n
Martin Chubb abused his victim\u2019s trust via his power of attorney over her financial affairs.<\/p>\n
Reading Crown Court<\/p>\n
The 58-year-old, of Grove Court, off Newtown Road, Newbury, admitted committing an offence of fraud in Newbury between January 1, 2020, and January 20 this year.<\/p>\n
He did so by abusing his power of attorney, specifically, by acting against, or not safeguarding, the financial interests of Patricia Chubb in order to make a financial gain for himself.<\/p>\n
A power of attorney is a legal document that allows someone to appoint one or more trusted people to make decisions on their behalf should they become incapacitated due to illness, accident or age.<\/p>\n
On Friday, April 10, Chubb appeared for sentencing at Reading Crown Court.<\/p>\n
However Sarita Basra, prosecuting, told the court there was no pre-sentence report available.<\/p>\n
The judge, Recorder Richard Paige, said: \u201cI understand he didn\u2019t engage with probation for the preparation of the report.\u201d<\/p>\n
However Chubb\u2019s defence counsel replied that \u201cat no point\u201d had her client refused to engage.<\/p>\n
She asked the court to adjourn the hearing in order for the report to be prepared, suggesting a suspended prison sentence would be one sentencing option and that such a report would be helpful in that case.<\/p>\n
Ms Basra said the full amount Chubb had milked from his victim was \u00a343,790.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, she conceded that he had repaid around \u00a322,000 of that.<\/p>\n
Ms Basra added: \u201cThere\u2019s another issue \u2013 there\u2019s a trust account\u2026 that has now been secured.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe family [of the victim] were very concerned about how they were going to pay her care fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendant cannot access it and it will be used to pay for the care of this very vulnerable victim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no accusation he has interfered with that trust fund.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Basra said that, given the circumstances of the case, Sentencing Council guidelines recommended a \u201cstarting point of five years\u201d.<\/p>\n
Judge Paige said: \u201cYou have mentioned the serious detrimental effect\u2026 [the victim] was particularly vulnerable due to her age and mental capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are few people more vulnerable than an elderly person suffering from dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n
He therefore agreed that the guidelines suggested a starting point of a five-year custodial sentence \u201cbefore mitigation and credit [for an early guilty plea]\u201d.<\/p>\n
Judge Paige went on: \u201cI will order the pre-sentence report \u2013 but I make it abundantly clear that this is a case where I anticipate custody.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve read the psychiatric report; I don\u2019t think it helps the defendant greatly, although I accept it shows genuine remorse.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, a custodial sentence would have a detrimental effect on his mental health \u2013 but that\u2019s often the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
He concluded: \u201cI make it clear that it will be an \u2018all options\u2019 report and, based on information I\u2019ve seen, a custodial sentence is likely.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I won\u2019t be the sentencing judge and the sentencing judge may take a different view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Paige said a Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 [POCA] hearing would also be arranged.<\/p>\n
A POCA hearing is a court proceeding, usually following a criminal conviction, to calculate and confiscate financial gains from crime.<\/p>\n
Chubb was meanwhile remanded back into custody.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who defrauded a vulnerable, elderly dementia victim of more than \u00a343,000 has been warned to expect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[240,9693,9694,2938],"class_list":{"0":"post-50331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chubb","8":"tag-chubb","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-newbury","11":"tag-update-me"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116418403721143301","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}