News from DailyMail.co.uk May 4, 2007

Free, uncle who stole £2,000 donated for boys with fatal disease
Last updated at 22:31pm on 4th May 2007
The uncle of three brothers battling a rare brain disease walked free from court yesterday despite admitting stealing £2,000 donated to help them.
Anthony Smith took the money from a trust fund set up for the boys and spent it on a 42in TV, a stereo system and on gambling.
He snatched it from the home of the grandparents of Connor, nine, Callum, seven, and Jack Smith, five, who all have the brain disorder adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD.
The disease, which attacks the brain and central nervous system, is incurable and most sufferers die in childhood.
But treatments including a dietary supplement known as Lorenzo's Oil - made famous by the film of the same name - can help slow down its progress.
Well-wishers had donated a total of £8,000 after the boys' parents revealed their plight.
But Smith, 27, helped himself to a quarter of the money within five days of the brothers' grandfather withdrawing it from the bank and hiding it in a drawer.
When the grandparents realised the money was missing, they called the police.
Prosecutors claimed he stole all £8,000 - but Smith said the other £6,000 was taken by a burglar or by his brother Scott, the boys' father.
Yesterday, a judge agreed he took only £2,000 and let him go free after ordering him to repay the money. Smith stole the cash on October 25 last year after sneaking into his parents' home on Saffron Lane in Leicester.
Asked why he took the money, he told Leicester Crown Court, "I was having trouble with my marriage. I was stupid. I thought it would improve relations with my wife.
"I thought I could get the £2,000 back before anyone would notice it was gone."
Smith spent £1,000 on a 42in flat-screen TV, £150 on a surround-sound system and £500 on gambling.
Asked how "frittering away £500 at the betting shop" would help his marriage, he told the court, "I was trying to get the money back."
He said he and his wife - from whom he has since split - had debts of around £12,000 when he took the cash.
Judge Peter Morrell ordered Smith, of Marriott Road, Leicester, to repay the £2,000 to his mother Elaine, who was forced to borrow that amount to make up what he stole.
He said, "In my judgment this was stupid and dishonest borrowing. I am satisfied on the balance of probability that he intended to repay the money, and I notice that his family also take the same view."
He told Smith, "Having this hanging over you must have been a terrible experience, and I don't think I will see you before this court again."
Smith smiled as he left court, but prosecutors are considering appealing against the sentence.
The boys' parents Scott, 28, a labourer, and Nicola, 27, a carer, from Leicester, have given up work to look after them.
 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=452802&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490

      <----back