A BUSINESSMAN and his wife have been ordered to repay nearly £50,000 after a judge said an elderly aunt appeared to have been "ripped off" before she died.

Robert and Michelle Fitzpatrick, of Burnley Road, Accrington, had the county court judgment made against them after other members of Maureen Skinner's family tried to retrieve money they said they owed.

The court heard relatives of Mrs Skinner, who lived in Beech Cresecent, Altham, and who died in January last year, aged 71, blamed Mr Fitzpatrick for making her very stressed because of mounting debt in the weeks leading up to her death.

But his wife today said after the hearing they would never have done anything to hurt Mrs Skinner and accused relatives of being jealous at the closeness of the relationship the couple had with her.

Burnley County Court heard that when she died, Mr Fitzpatrick's aunt was in debt for the first time in her life after agreeing to take out personal loans, credit card accounts and store agreements for Robert and his wife Michelle.

A total of 17 debts totalling £59,206.39 were presented to Judge Gee by Mrs Skinner's relatives, all of which, it was claimed, were taken out by Mrs Skinner but were for Mr and Mrs Fitzpatrick.

The judge said: "I have no hesitation in granting this judgement, the only pity is that it is very unlikely you will see this money paid back because of other issues."

All the debts have since been settled by Mrs Skinner's relatives, who argued that her name had been blackened by the actions of Mr Fitzpatrick.

The court was told that Mr Fitzpatrick had been banned from being a company director for 11 years last year for his involvement with a company called Guardearly.

Last January the Lancashire Evening Telegraph reported how the company operated an unlawful lottery and money circulation scheme that was described as dishonest and a swindle on the public and similar to the Titan pyramid selling scheme which affected East Lancashire investors in the mid-1990s.

Judge Gee agreed to sanction a judgment of £49,913.01 after being told some of the repayments had been reduced after Mrs Skinner's relatives had told creditors that their mother had been duped.

Mr and Mrs Fitzpatrick did not attend yesterday's court hearing, after he requested an adjournment which was declined by Judge Gee who said he felt Mr Fitzpatrick was 'playing with the law'.

Judge Gee completed the hearing, which was due to last two days, in two hours.

The court was told Mrs Fitzpatrick had claimed in letters to Mrs Skinner's daughter that the debt had been acquired to cover the elderly woman's extravagant lifestyle, which had led to her living in poverty.

This was dismissed by Judge Gee, who described the comments made by the Fitzpatricks as "ranging from the unbelievable to obvious nonsense."

He told Mrs Skinner's relatlives: "Your aunt's estate more than covered the debt so there was no need for her to take it out in the first place. It appears he was basically ripping his auntie off."

He added: "The judgement is against both of them because I feel they both benefited. I assume that by spending £300 on a store card for baby goods that both husband and wife will have benefited."

Judge Gee gave an example of the "ridiculous excuses" used by the Fitzpatricks to explain away the debts when he pointed out a £5,000 cheque was written out for one of Mr Fitzpatrick's later business ventures, SecureKeys, by Mrs Skinner.

The couple claimed the cheque was to cover expenses they might incur while Mrs Skinner was abroad on a cruise, such as paying her bills and getting shopping.

"That was obviously not the case," added Judge Gee.

Mrs Skinner's daughter, Brenda, told the court: "When she first died, I was too upset to go through all her paper work and just passed it all over to the solicitors.

"I first became aware that something was wrong when I saw some cheques had been written by my mother. She never wrote cheques, she did everything by direct debit so she knew where she was at.

"I made inquiries to the electricity board and found out the cheque was for the Fitzpatricks. The same happened again when I checked out a cheque to Hyndburn Council. That is when the penny dropped.

"We paid off the debts. There is no way the things on the store cards were gifts. If something was intended as a gift, she went out and bought it outright."

Speaking after the case, Mrs Davies, who had wept in court as she read out a letter from Mrs Fitzpatrick which apologised for causing stress, added: "We feel this judgement has helped to remove the tarnish which has been cast across my mother's reputation since her death."

Michelle Fitzpatrick said: "We expected this but we do not think it is right. The family are simply jealous at the closeness of the relationship we had with Maureen.

"We would never have done anything to upset her and I think people are stooping very low."

PIC: Robert Fitzpatrick, a court heard how he had "ripped off" his elderly aunt before her death.