Cherie Blair calls in police to hunt her mother’s lodger – as up to £80k vanishes from bank account
CHERIE BLAIR has called in police after up to £80,000 was siphoned from her elderly mother’s bank account through cashpoints.
Inquiries are centring on a 47year-old man who lodged with Gale Booth, 82, at her modest terraced home in Oxford. He is believed to have bought a first-class ticket to Australia in recent weeks.
The alleged fraud came to light when Mrs Booth went to stay at the Blairs’ country mansion – South Pavilion in Buckinghamshire – after injuring her arm.
Mrs Blair and her sister, Lyndsey Booth, went to their mother’s home to sort through her mail and were puzzled to discover that there was far less money in her bank account than there should have been.
Further investigations are understood to have revealed that money had been withdrawn from Mrs Booth’s account at cash machines over at least two years. On each occasion, hundreds of pounds had been withdrawn – despite the fact that Mrs Booth never uses ATMs.
The total is said to have come to almost £80,000.
Suspicion has fallen on a man who was connected with various thea- tres in Oxford and as well as lodging with Mrs Booth had become her unofficial carer in recent times.
A former actress, and the onetime wife of actor Tony Booth, Mrs Booth often volunteered at theatres in Oxford and put her name on ‘digs lists’ at several of them, offering to put up visiting actors.
Mrs Booth, who is increasingly frail, is currently staying with the Blairs at South Pavilion and Mrs Blair has employed carers for her mother while she looks into finding her a place in a nursing home.
It has been decided that – given her advanced age and poor health – Mrs Booth should not return to her own home.
The lodger, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been described as ‘charming’ by a former colleague who knew him eight years ago.
The friend said he was ‘a man who was then in his late thirties who hadn’t quite found his place in life and moved from job to job in the theatre’. They added: ‘He was a thoroughly charming sort of chap and I’m really surprised to hear if he’s alleged to have done something like this.
‘I can only hope it all turns out to be some kind of misunderstanding.’
Thames Valley Police last night confirmed that a fraud investigation had been launched.
The alleged theft is said to have caused Mrs Blair and her sister to set aside their differences after years of squabbling. The pair fell out during Tony Blair’s time as Prime Minister when Lyndsey accused Downing Street staff of revealing details about the health of a family member during a row over the safety of the MMR vaccine.
She claimed the medical details of one of her children had been revealed to justify the Blairs’ position when the then PM and his wife became embroiled in a row over their refusal to say if Leo, the youngest of their four children, had been given the controversial vaccine. The sisters had a blazing row and as a result did not attend each other’s birthday celebrations.
The once close siblings were abandoned by their father Tony Booth – who found fame as the ‘Scouse git’ in the classic BBC sitcom Till Death Us Do Part – when he walked out on his marriage to Gale. At the time, Cherie was just eight and Lyndsey six.
In 2011, the sisters put their previous disagreements to one side when they joined other family members to celebrate Mr Booth’s 80th birthday.
A source close to the Blairs said: ‘The situation with the missing money has only come to light recently. Cherie and Lyndsey have not seen eye to eye for a while, but they have rallied round for the sake of their mother.
‘They went to her house to make sure Gale’s affairs were in order and were staggered when they looked through her bank statements. A hell of a lot of money is unaccounted for. They had no choice but to call in the police.’
A spokesman for Mrs Blair said they had no comment to make.
‘He was a thoroughly charming sort of chap’