A married couple have been sentenced to six months in gaol in a case described as "motivated by greed" by the presiding judge.

Mr Justice Hart, sitting today in Downpatrick Crown Court, imposed the terms on George Ignatius Martin and Mary Martin, for forging the signature of Annie Martin, George Martin's 93-year-old mother, to transfer her house into their names.

Annie Martin purchased her house in Saintfield in 1986 in the joint names of herself and her son, George, but George Martin and his wife Mary had other plans.

After a period in hospital, they refused to allow the old lady to return to the house, putting her in a nursing home in Belfast instead.

However, the matter was then reported to the police by another son, Malachy Martin.

Both defendants later pleaded guilty to forging Annie Martin's signature on Land Registry Transfer documents in 1997 and 2000 to transfer ownership of the property into their names.

The court heard that the defendants re-mortgaged the property in 2003 and 2006 for a total of £80,850.

This was accepted by their counsel to be "unedifying" and Mr Justice Hart considered that it suggested that greed was a motive.

"The chief mischief in this case was to take Annie Martin's home away from her in her declining years, and inflict upon her the deep distress at being excluded from her home and contact with her grandchildren," said the judge.

He said that even if Annie Martin may have agreed to the suggestion that the property be put in the sole names of the defendants, he did not believe that she ever contemplated that they would exclude her from her home.

"The defendants forged her signatures to get this house into their names and took advantage of her absence in hospital to refuse to allow her back and then took advantage of their sole ownership to get a large amount of money."

Mr Justice Hart said that forgery of documents is always a very serious matter and concluded that this was a case where an immediate custodial sentence was required.

(BMcC/JM)