Family raises awareness of doorstep crime

A courageous family whose elderly widowed mother was tricked out of her life savings of more than £272,000 just before she died of cancer, have channelled their grief into a campaign to highlight doorstep crime.

Despite having to deal with the tragic loss of their mother, David Cornock and his sister Helen O'Neil were determined to alert other potential victims of heartless scams and have brought nationwide attention to the subject.

David (who is the BBC's parliamentary correspondent for Wales) and Helen will receive recognition for their courage and determination when a representative of trading standards in Wales receives a Hero Award on their behalf at the Trading Standards Institute's (TSI) conference and exhibition in Edinburgh today.

David Riley, Chair of the Wales Heads of Trading Standards said: " The Cornock family has made a huge impact in a very short space of time in articulating the sadness, anger and frustration felt over their mother's suffering and in so doing have brought the whole doorstep crime agenda to a broad new audience.

"The family has channelled its grief in a way that has assisted Trading Standards in raising the profile of doorstep crime throughout Wales and there is a real likelihood that their decision to speak so openly will safeguard others from falling victim. Yet the decision to speak so openly could not have been an easy one."

David and Helen's mother Anne Cornock, 76, was pressurised over the course of a year by a gang who conned her into handing over a total of £272,310 after she had a driveway laid at her home in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The gang persuaded her she had been overcharged for the driveway work and said they could help her obtain some re-imbursement if she paid them a sum of money first.

While the gang put her under increasing pressure she did not tell anyone of the problems she was having and by the time her family discovered the scam Anne Cornock was terminally ill with cancer.

Wales Trading Standards submitted the nomination for the Cornock family to receive the Hero Award. In their submission, they stated: " in the words of Mrs Cornock's daughter, Helen O'Neil, the experience had left her mother ‘emotionally distraught'; she had disregarded her own health while attempting to rectify the situation, ‘living and breathing it 24/7 until she died, in November 2009, a broken woman'."

The nomination told how Mrs Cornock had always been a prudent person, "yet it seems she had felt compelled to empty her bank account; cash in ISA investments and savings for her grandchildren; and even took out an overdraft to satisfy the demands made upon her for payment."

David told the BBC News website this May (2010): "My mother was too ashamed and intimidated to tell anyone, which had a huge impact on her health. She was an intelligent, sensible woman - if she could fall for this, anyone could. The offenders destroyed the last year of my mother's life."

Cardiff estate agent Sean White was sentenced to two years in prison in March this year after admitting two charges of money-laundering. They relate to bank transfers  of £60,000 and £55,000 made in 2008 by Mrs Anne Cornock.

Helen O'Neil said after White's conviction: "My mother was being hounded in her own house; persecuted, if you like, by phone calls demanding money. She ignored her own health trying to rectify this situation."

David is continuing to help Trading Standards raise awareness of doorstep crime and has taken part in high profile campaigns to help safeguard others from becoming victims.