Woman behind bars after using her position to fraudulently gain money
A woman who worked at a law firm in Poole is now behind bars after she used her position to exploit money from two vulnerable clients.
Emma Charlotte Amey, 45 and of Honeysuckle Lane in Poole, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by abuse of position at Poole Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 14 May 2025.
The fraudulent activity took place between October 2021 and October 2023 and involved two male victims who were living in residential homes.
Amey was working as a paralegal in the wills and probate department at a law firm in Poole at the time of her offending.
Her work involved managing accounts for clients where the firm held power of attorney and she would pay expenses or bills on their behalf using a chequebook or debit card.
The investigation began in February 2024 after the bank returned a potentially fraudulent cheque to the law firm.
When the law firm looked into this further, the corresponding cheque stub was made out to a care company. However, the cheque itself was addressed to Amey for a total of £3,400.
The employer confronted Amey where she admitted to taking money using cheques. Once the cheques had been signed by another representative at the firm, she used an erasable pen to change the payee’s name to her own.
In addition to this, she admitted to using debit cards belonging to the victims to withdraw cash for herself and for online transactions.
In total, Amey stole a total of £11,568 from the two victims.
She was sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court on Friday 11 July 2025 to 20 months imprisonment.
During sentencing, the judge described Amey’s actions as despicable and contrived.
Detective Constable Lucy Hale, of the Economic Crime Unit, said: “Emma Amey was entrusted with looking after the day-to-day finances of vulnerable and she abused her position for personal gain making deliberate attempts to avoid detection.
“We are committed to investigating reports such as this to ensure that fraudsters are held to account for their offending. This type of crime has the potential to impact the public’s confidence in the power of attorney scheme and I am pleased that we were able to restore some trust and make sure that the defendant was brought to justice.”
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