How Man Stole £30,000 From Dying Wife to Find New Bride in Russia

A 58-year-old man in the UK, Anthony Foley, reportedly stole £30,000 from his dying wife and used part of the money to fund a holiday to Russia, where he met his new bride.

According to DailyMail, Anthony put Maxine, his wife of 26 years, in a care home in 2006 after her degenerative nervous system disorder left her in need of full-time care.

He stopped visiting her just six months later, blaming a fake cancer diagnosis and overseas job for his lack of contact.

Foley then used his power of attorney to steal almost £30,000 in disability allowance from Maxine’s Post Office account, and used some of the cash to travel Russia, where he met his next wife, Tamara Kudinova.

The couple married at Birmingham Registry Office on October 8 2008 – the date of his and Maxine’s 20th wedding anniversary.

Maxine died last June aged 49 after losing her battle with her condition and when Foley learned of her death, he did not send a card or attend her funeral.

Foley was yesterday jailed for 20 months after admitting charges of bigamy and obtaining benefits by deception at Birmingham Crown Court.

Balvinder Bhatti, prosecuting, said Foley married Maxine on October 8, 1988.

She said the marriage appeared happy but Maxine was admitted to a home in 2006 after her condition, Friedreich Ataxia, which causes progressive damage to the nervous system, deteriorated to the point she required 24-hour care.

The following year, Foley stopped visiting his wife, telling his mother-in-law that he had found a job in Germany. He also claimed he had been diagnosed with cancer, and that he had suffered a stroke.

But in reality he had travelled to Russia on his wife’s benefits payments and had met Ms Kudinova, whom he later married.

Foley used divorce documents from a failed marriage in the late 1970s to persuade Birmingham Registry Office staff he was single and free to wed his Russian bride.

Officials from the Department for Work and Pensions alerted West Midlands Police in 2012 following a review of benefits paid to Mrs Foley.

Fraud investigators from the force’s Economic Crime Unit found Foley made 221 withdrawals using his wife’s bank card – none of which was handed to her or used to help fund her on-going care.

Instead, he used the money to cover day-to-day expenses and pay off debts.

Foley was arrested in June last year, the month Maxine died. When he discovered she had lost her battle with her condition, he did not send a message of condolence, or attend the funeral.

After several interviews he finally admitted taking £29,593 in disability benefits and that his wife knew nothing of the transactions.

Maxine’s mother, Irene Jones, 80, said she was ‘shocked’ Foley had married his new wife on the same day he married her daughter.

She said: ‘I had no idea he had remarried until the police told me. The new woman has a daughter in her 20s so she must be in her 40s at least.

‘I am just relieved it is all finished. He got his sentence and he got what he deserved. He has been lying to me right from the start.’