A Dundee woman who coerced a vulnerable octogenarian to withdraw £300 for her has been locked up.
Tandy Swinton was brought from prison to Dundee Sheriff Court, where she admitted stealing the cash and acting in a threatening or abusive manner.
Fiscal depute Lynne Mannion explained Swinton had previously visited her 82-year-old victim’s home in Dundee to ask for a cup of water, then returned to request small sums of money in subsequent visits.
When she attended the woman’s Dryburgh Gardens home in November, she told her she had not been in touch for some time as she had been in prison.
Swinton told the pensioner she needed to visit family in Birmingham and required £300 to travel, so called for a taxi to the TSB in Dundee’s Albert Square.
The HMP Edinburgh inmate accompanied her elderly victim inside and stole the money after her victim had withdrawn it.
Callous Swinton then told her she needed another £200.
Drug addiction
Swinton’s solicitor David Duncan said: “The position is, prior to her going into remand for this case she was trying to make her way through a fairly longstanding and desperate drug addiction.
“That issue had some significant low points.
“That’s the real difficulty for her.
“In this court, different people have different mechanisms, whether is be drug dealing to deal with their own circumstances but the method that she has undertaken is taking advantage of somebody’s vulnerabilities, which is very difficult for the court to accept when she has found herself in that situation as well.”
He said his client, who now lives with her mother, had received help for health issues while in prison.
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael jailed Swinton, of Elders Court, for 18 months, backdated to November 21 when she was first remanded.
He said: “There is no alternative but a custodial sentence.
“I think you probably know that.”
The sheriff also imposed a decade-long non-harassment order to protect Swinton’s victim.
Past crimes
Swinton has previous convictions.
In August 2020, Dundee Sheriff Court heard how a 93-year-old victim was left traumatised after she forced her way into his home, threatened to kill him and robbed him of £100.
She was also previously banned from entering sheltered housing complexes in Dundee, a ban she promptly breached.
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