Seven years prior to orchestrating a fraudulent will, concerns had already surfaced regarding a care home manager who allegedly drugged a coworker by slipping a resident’s prescribed medication into her tea.

Jamiel Slaney-Summers, 65, attempted to fraudulently claim £175,000 from 85-year-old Rita Barnsley’s estate. She crafted a suspicious will using felt-tip pens and varied handwriting styles on the very day Barnsley passed away in 2021.

The plan would have seen Ms. Slaney-Summers inherit 50 percent of Ms. Barnsley’s assets, with two other care workers implicated in the scheme.

Last month, a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court found the trio guilty, marking one of the largest elder fraud cases in UK history.

It has now come to light that serious allegations regarding Ms. Slaney-Summers’ conduct towards care home residents and staff were raised as early as 2014.

In a separate incident, she has also been accused of operating a fraudulent rescue dog scheme, which reportedly left a mother and daughter nearly £1,000 in debt.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Alexandra Cooper-Kite, 49, claimed she was bullied by Ms Slaney-Summers while she was working at a care home in the West Midlands. 

She said the manager gave her diazepam – a drug used to treat anxiety disorder and muscle spasms – after she questioned her ability to do her job because she had bipolar disorder.

It is then believed Ms Slaney-Summers forged Ms Cooper-Kite’s signature on a sheet used to record medication, suggesting the pills had been damaged by accident. 

The senior care assistant collapsed at work after taking the tablets, and an ambulance was called. 

She said she reported the incident to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in October 2014, but claims her allegations were not taken seriously by the watchdog. 

Ms Cooper-Kite was then sacked by Ms Slaney-Summers for supposed ‘gross misconduct’ the following the month. 

She took the owners of the care home to an employment tribunal in December 2015, where she was awarded £33,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination. 

Ms Cooper-Kite told the Daily Mail: ‘This woman is just pure evil. I had a nervous breakdown because of this woman.

‘The CQC were total failures in this. I told multiple times about this woman and they did nothing. They let her carry on, and carry on, and carry on abusing her position.’ 

Ms Cooper-Kite said she believes Ms Slaney-Summers took an ‘instant dislike’ to her because she had bipolar disorder. 

‘She [Ms Slaney-Summers] said that I should be on the dole and that people with mental health conditions should not be working,’ Ms Cooper-Kite explained. 

‘She would make me look bad when I used to go to work, but then she started making me cups of tea and I thought she was trying to befriend me somehow. 

‘Then I started feeling tired constantly on shift and disorientated. 

‘And it wasn’t until I collapsed at work, that I found out that she was actually putting diazepam in my cups of tea. 

‘A carer witnessed it, and she witnessed her signing my name for this diazepam medication.’ 

Ms Cooper-Kite’s allegations are detailed in the court documents from her employment tribunal, where the judge ruled the ‘evidence supports’ her claims.

The judgment reads: ‘On September 16 [2014], the claimant approached Ms Slaney-Summers in distress. 

‘Ms Slaney-Summers obtained the keys for the medicine cabinet and gave the claimant two tablets in a plastic pot. It is believed she gave her diazepam.

‘The MARS sheet shows two diazepam tablets prescribed for a resident as being crushed and destroyed that day, and apparently signed as such by the claimant, who denied making that entry.’ 

The court, which was presided over by Judge Warren in Birmingham, concluded that Ms Cooper-Kite had done nothing wrong. 

It ruled that Ms Slaney-Summers made up a catalogue of ‘lies and exaggerations’ and that Ms Cooper-Kite’s dismissal ‘arose directly from the claimant’s disability’. 

Moreover, the ex-care home manager has also been accused of scamming a mother and daughter who paid £500 to adopt a rescue dog through her.  

Jade Just met Ms Slaney-Summers at a car boot sale in Birmingham and paid £500 to adopt a ‘two-year-old’ Boston Terrier for her mother’s 60th birthday in August 2023. 

She said the care home manager claimed that she was from a dog rescue centre in Wales and that her first name was ‘Joy’ not Jamiel. 

However, when the dog arrived, Ms Just said the dog had a series of issues that they had not been made aware of. 

Ms Slaney-Summers also allegedly ‘repeatedly came up with excuses’ about why she could not send over any formal documents about the adoption. 

Ms Just said: ‘”Joy” kept sending sending my mum excuses as to why she couldn’t get the details over. 

‘I took it upon myself to get the dog checked over with the vet, but as no paperwork had been transferred, nothing could be logged, nor could a file be made.

‘I was told by the vet she hadn’t been neutered she had already had one set of puppies (within the prior weeks to the adoption). 

‘She also wasn’t two or three years old as we were told. The vet said she was barley 12/14 months and in the vet’s words had been brought to breed!’ 

The mother and daughter described Ms Slaney-Summers as an ‘out-an-out conwoman’, who had cost them a total of nearly £1,000. 

They added that they had been forced to put the terrier back up for adoption due to its complex needs. 

Ms Barker, 62, also explained that when they tried to get back in touch with the care home manager, she claimed she was seriously ill in hospital.

She said: ‘She [Ms Slaney-Summers] sent this picture of herself on a hospital bed, on a drip and said I’m seriously ill in hospital and I can’t get to you. 

‘My daughter’s boyfriend looked at the photo and blew it up. 

‘The photo was two years old and it was a different name and a different date of birth on the arm band on her wrist. 

‘We googled the picture and that was when he realised her first name was Jamiel and she was being charged with fraud.’ 

Ms Barker added: ‘She’s an out and out conwoman. There is no other word for it. We lost over £1000 because of this whole situation.’ 

Ms Slaney-Summers is due to be sentenced alongside her co-defendants Graham Walker, 74,  and his wife Lyn, 71, on December 5. 

The court previously heard that the trio who ran Amberley Care Home in Brierley Hill, West Midlands – drew up a ‘dodgy’ will to snatch Rita Barnsley’s lifesavings. 

The document, which was described in court as a ‘sham’, was produced the day after Rita died in August 2021.

It named Mrs Walker and Ms Slaney-Summers as executors and the main beneficiaries of the will.

Ms Slaney-Summers was due to receive 50 per cent of Rita’s estate, while Mrs Walker would get 25 per cent. A sum of £5,000 was also left to the care home staff.

The scam was exposed thanks to Rita’s cousin Verna, who raised the alarm with Dudley Council’s Trading Standards team.

Ms Slaney-Summers was also found to have taken £6,000 from Rita’s bank accounts, which she blew on online bingo.

She claimed she had used the money to buy Rita flowers every Friday and on incontinence pads – but was found guilty of theft.

The court heard Rita had moved into the care home in May 2020 after falling ill.

However instead of receiving care, she was financially abused by the very people meant to protect her.

Trading Standards officers uncovered several ‘red flags’ in the will which led to the Walkers and Slaney-Summers being arrested.

The jury took just 90 minutes to return unanimous guilty verdicts following the four-weed trial.

The Daily Mail contacted the CQC for comment on the concerns raised by Ms Cooper-Kite.

A spokesperson said: ‘We received concerns about this matter in October 2014 and carried out initial checks with the home. 

‘We also referred this issue to the local authority safeguarding team to carry out their responsibilities.

‘We remained in contact with both the local authority and the provider and took all necessary steps to seek assurances that this matter was being dealt with and concluded that there was no further action for us to take at that stage.

‘Any information that we receive such as this is used to inform our monitoring, inspection activity and what regulatory action we may take.’