A war hero whose life savings were stolen by two carers would not hear ‘a bad word’ said about them, his granddaughter has said.
Steven Kantecki, 44, and his wife, Sarah Kantecki, 39, plundered £184,000 from Eric Woodhouse’s bank account over 17 months.
The married couple spent £80,000 on the 96-year-old’s debit card and withdrew £90,000 in cash to spend on 60 watches and more than 200 bottles of perfume.
Their home in Scarborough, north Yorkshire, was brimming with luxury goods and looked ‘like a department store’, a court heard.
They were both jailed for four years and nine months in July after being found guilty of theft at Hull Crown Court.
Sarah was also convicted of perverting the course of justice by writing a letter to Eric asking him to drop the case.
Eric’s granddaughter, Anna Woodhouse, said the family were left sickened and devastated after seeing what the thieves had splurged on.
She was suspicious of the pair but the family said he was ‘such a nice man’ he would get upset by any criticisms of them.
Anna, 44, has now launched a petition after discovering her grandfather, who died two months after the deception was finally uncovered in 2019, was vulnerable due to a gap in the law.
Because he didn’t like having agency carers, who would frequently change, he came to a ‘private arrangement’ with the Kanteckis.
As they were not employed by an agency or care home, they were classed as ‘personal assistants’.
This means they did not go through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), and could even set up as carers again once released from prison.
Anna added: ‘Carers do an amazing job and I am sure the majority wouldn’t dream of doing something like this.
‘But this is the only part of the care sector that is unregulated and we need to do something to protect the vulnerable.’
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