Concerns raised over care home fraudster years before faked will

On a LinkedIn profile boasting two decades in health and social care, Jamiel Slaney-Summers claims she is able to "quickly integrate and gain trust with others".

But the care home manager has been jailed for five and a half years for trying to steal an elderly resident's life savings by creating a fake will with coloured pens, different styles of handwriting and mismatched signatures.

She plotted with two others to claim the £175,000 fortune of 85-year-old Rita Barnsley, before being undone after a worried relative raised the alarm.

The BBC can now reveal concerns were raised about the behaviour of Slaney-Summers, from Birmingham, more than a decade ago.

Numerous bizarre allegations range from her fraudulently selling pets to attempting to poison a former colleague.

A number of people who previously worked with her are questioning why she was not stopped from working in the care industry years earlier.

Slaney-Summers was convicted of fraud alongside Graham and Lyn Walker, who previously owned Amberley Care Home in Brierley Hill, Dudley, and where Miss Barnsley had lived for just over a year.

Slaney-Summers was found guilty of stealing £6,000 from Miss Barnsley's bank account. Amberley, which provides personal care for about 25 people, some with dementia, is under new management.

Miss Barnsley's cousin and only surviving family member, Verna, alerted the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about her suspicions in September 2021, a month after her relative's death.

It led to a 12-month investigation led by trading standards chief officer Kuldeep Maan, who suspects the fake will was drawn up after Miss Barnsley died.

Mr Maan said Slaney-Summers' gambling habit could have been a motive to steal the woman's estate.

He also said she was the trio's ringleader and "100% the most eccentric" person he had ever prosecuted.

"We were going to interview her under caution [in 2022] and she was about three or four hours late," Mr Maan explained.

"She claimed there was an accident on the motorway and she had to save a child from a car and collect some sheep that escaped from a lorry.

"She likes to make everything the Jamiel show."

During her trial, Slaney-Summers, from Northfield, tried to halt proceedings by saying she had numerous infections and gastroenteritis.

She also claimed to have made a suicide attempt by running into the path of a bus and a tram, but Mr Maan said CCTV showed that was not the case.

That kind of behaviour comes as little surprise to Alex Cooper-Kite.

The 49-year-old was a care worker at Breach House, a home for 26 residents in Belbroughton, Worcestershire, in 2014.

She claimed Slaney-Summers, a manager, made her life a misery by bullying her because of her bipolar disorder.

Ms Cooper-Kite eventually went to an employment tribunal, where she alleged her boss was spiking her tea with prescription medicine, causing her to collapse at work.

"She told people that I broke into her house, stole her car and got speeding tickets and then took the car keys back," Ms Cooper-Kite said.

"She made me sound like a lunatic."

In 2015, the tribunal in Birmingham awarded Ms Cooper-Kite £33,000 for the unfair dismissal and disability discrimination she suffered at the hands of Slaney-Summers.

But she insisted "nobody was interested" in her concerns about her former manager, despite contacting the CQC multiple times.

"They must have had her on the radar and on the system. Why didn't they do anything?" she said.

The BBC understands the CQC received reports related to Breach House in October 2014, carrying out initial checks but later concluding no further action was needed.

The same concerns were referred to the safeguarding team at Worcestershire County Council, which said it takes "issues of safeguarding and care quality extremely seriously".

Breach House was contacted for a response.

Another person who raised the alarm is Julie Collett, from Kinver, Staffordshire, who worked with Slaney-Summers at Clent View Apartments domiciliary care service in Brierley Hill in 2017.

The 66-year-old, who is now retired, claimed she told management she saw her "looking through and tampering with client files, finances and support plans", but said her concerns were not acted upon.

"[There are] definitely questions to answer," Ms Collett said.

"When staff take the time to report [concerns] to their hierarchy then you expect them to act on it."

In an email, Edgeview Homes, which ran Clent View, strongly defended its position.

The company said Slaney-Summers failed to pass her probationary period, partly because it became aware of the earlier employment tribunal.

"No clients suffered any abuse at the hands of Jamiel so it would not have been necessary for us to report the matter of an unsatisfactory probationary period and her dismissal to CQC or safeguarding," the email read.

Edgeview added it was "false and egregious" to suggest any causative link between its employment of Slaney-Summers and her recent crimes.

"We have no questions to answer," they added.

The BBC has also heard allegations Slaney-Summers was scamming people in August 2023, while the Dudley Trading Standards investigation into the financial abuse of 85-year-old Miss Barnsley was ongoing.

Jade Just, from Kings Heath, Birmingham, said she had met Slaney-Summers at a car boot sale in the city that month. The latter introduced herself as a lady called Joy and went on to sell her a dog in the days afterwards.

The 38-year-old purchased what she believed was a two-year-old Boston Terrier.

The pet was a gift for a mother's 60th birthday and "Joy" insisted it had been spayed.

But when the dog came into season and presented with other health issues a short while later, vets told Ms Just she had bought a 12 to 14 month old "puppy machine".

The family were forced to give the dog up, leaving them "heartbroken" and hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

"It was lie after lie and deceit after deceit," Ms Just said.

The transaction has been reported to trading standards.

Last month, it took a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court just over an hour to convict Slaney-Summers of fraud and theft.

But Dudley Trading Standards said their work could be far from over, with fresh allegations continuing to emerge.

While Slaney-Summers did not have any previous convictions, investigators have been made aware of claims involving other care homes as far back as 2008.

Officers have also received reports of Slaney-Summers offering aesthetic injections on social media.

"I've been doing this job for nearly 20 years and this is the first case where my phone, since conviction, has been ringing non-stop," added Mr Maan.

The CQC said it did not have any legal powers to investigate individual complaints.

But the regulator encouraged people to inform it of concerns so it could decide where to inspect.

"This is a deeply concerning case and shows how important it is for providers of social care services to have in place robust measures to root out financial abuse and keep people safe," a spokesperson said.

"When we receive information of concern about a service, we carry out checks to make sure people are safe."

West Midlands Police said there were no continuing investigations into Slaney-Summers but if new evidence was presented it would review the matter.

Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.