A “selfish” woman took advantage of a vulnerable widow by stealing the trusting victim’s wedding and eternity rings and pawning them to raise cash for heroin, Hull Live reports. The two women had been close friends but “desperate” drug addict Claire Cumming repeatedly pestered her for money before turning up at her door late one night to plead for more cash.
She finally persuaded the retired woman to hand over the wedding ring off her finger by falsely promising to return it the next day, Hull Crown Court heard. Cumming now claims she has beaten drugs and is “more than just a surname and a number” after being in prison while on remand.
She had been a drug addict for 26 years since the age of 17 but insists drugs are no longer on her “radar”. Cumming, 43, of Hykeham Close, Kingswood, Hull, admitted fraud and two offences of theft.
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Julia Baggs, prosecuting, said that the retired woman, now 67, had known Cumming for around 12 years and they had originally been very close friends. Their relationship changed after the woman’s husband died and Cumming often asked her for money.
“This was persistent and repeated,” said Miss Baggs.
Cumming pestered the widow with telephone calls and text messages in the seven years after her husband died. The woman loaned her around £800 that had not been repaid.
Cumming made further “begging” requests for money and the woman felt under “relentless and constant pressure”. On August 12, 2019, Cumming went to the widow’s home at midnight, banged on the front door and asked for money.
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The woman spoke to her on the doorstep but had no money to give her. Cumming noticed the wedding ring on the widow’s finger and asked her for it, saying she would return it the following morning.
The woman reluctantly handed over the ring but it was not returned. This incident was the “final straw” for the woman.
She carried out her own investigation and visited pawn shops and cash shops where she found some of her missing possessions. Cumming had several accounts in her own name and that of a man.
The widow later said “she feels like she has been used” and she had been left very upset.
“I am scared of her turning up at my address,” she said. “I always check the door. I am vulnerable. I am elderly. I have been taken advantage of.”
The woman was particularly upset that she had not got her two phones back because they contained “precious” and “irreplaceable” photographs of her late husband, her mother-in-law, her father and other members of the family. The stolen items included a gold-banded wedding ring with a stone, a gold eternity ring, a gold identity bracelet bearing two engravings of the couple’s names and a gold banded ring with stones on it.
She had reportedly got back the wedding ring and eternity ring.
“Considerable emotional distress has been caused,” said Miss Baggs.
Cumming had convictions for 20 previous offences, including breaching court orders. She claimed in court that the woman had a “close bond” with her.
“She used to accompany me,” she said. “She was often at my home.”
Cumming admitted she did sometimes ask the widow for money.
“Sometimes she did feel obligated,” said Cumming.
The court heard Cumming had been jailed for 14 days after failing to turn up for an earlier hearing and had since been remanded in custody at New Hall prison, near Wakefield, since February. Cumming claimed she wanted to make it up to the widow.
“That’s not going to be possible,” she said.
Cumming claimed she had become clean of drugs with “a lot of hard work and soul-searching" and she was on a reducing methadone prescription after previously taking heroin.
“I have changed my way of thinking,” she claimed. “I have been an addict since I was 17 to 26. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and took it.”
She said of her current situation: “I am not an addict. There are things in my life that are more important. Drugs are not on my radar.”
Cumming said of being in prison: “I don't want to repeat that experience. I feel like I am a lot more than just a surname and a number. I have made the decision – I need to get clean before I am in my box.”
Judge Mark Bury told Cumming: “When you were still a drug addict, you took advantage of a friend of yours. You needed money for drugs and you were borrowing from her.
“She says you haven’t paid her back. You say you have.”
Judge Bury said that he knew which version of that to believe. Cumming went round to the woman’s home at midnight “desperate for money” and asked for the widow’s wedding ring, which she pawned.
“That shows how desperate you must have been,” said Judge Bury.
“What you did was a gross breach of trust and a breach of a friendship. It was selfish and you had no concern for your friend.
“All you were bothered about was your next fix and she has lost out. This behaviour is just unpleasant, selfish, greedy. You have really upset an elderly lady.
“You pleaded not guilty all the way to trial day. You left the area, not giving any thought to your responsibility to attend court. Eventually, you were arrested and locked up.
“You have been in custody since February. You have not enjoyed it. It has been a wake-up call. You have resolved in your own mind never to return.”
Cumming was given 20 days’ rehabilitation and a five-year restraining order.
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