Ex-Bradford social worker who swindled victims to pay £530,000

Hillary Tideswell was ordered to pay back more than £500,000, or face an additional jail term

A former Bradford social worker who defrauded two vulnerable victims out of their life-savings has been ordered to pay back more than £500,000.

Hillary Tideswell, 65, was jailed for seven years and nine months in 2020 for money laundering offences.

She was also convicted of fraud by abuse of position and fraud by false representation.

On Friday, at Leeds Crown Court, she was ordered to pay £530,347.96, or face an additional jail term.

Her husband, David Tideswell, who received a two-year suspended sentence for money laundering, was ordered to pay £67,577.88.

'Appalling abuse of trust'

West Yorkshire Police said Tideswell, who worked for Bradford Council, carried out the offences between 2010 and 2016 after befriending two elderly victims.

Ramona Senior, from the force's economic crime unit, said Tideswell created legal documents without their knowledge, which, in one case allowed her to sell off the victim's assets, leaving them £60,000 in debt.

"Tideswell left a trail of financial and emotional devastation behind her and now the courts have ordered her ill-gotten gains to be taken from her, along with those of her husband David, who also played his part in this criminal enterprise." she added.

Following her conviction, Kim Holden of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: "Tideswell was entrusted to care for some of the most vulnerable people in society and she used this power for her own selfish gain, taking over half-a-million pounds and spending it lavishly.

"Criminality of this nature represents an appalling abuse of trust," she added.

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They were both given three months to pay, or face a further five years on their original sentences.