Two sisters stole almost half a million dollars from their grandmother after “running amok” with her bank accounts, a jury heard.Lorraine Elizabeth Smith, 46, and Audra-Ann Marie Bean, 44, both of Warwick, deny multiple counts of theft from Lenice Tucker, 88, and one count of abusing a senior by financial exploitation.Their Supreme Court trial began yesterday, with prosecutor Garrett Byrne alleging the pair cleared Ms Tucker’s bank accounts of $493,580 between July 2010 and January 2011, leaving just $200.He claimed they deceived their grandmother into adding them as signatories on her HSBC and Butterfield accounts, then used their “new-found wealth” for their own ends, including to pay for school fees and rent and buy new windows and doors.Opening the Crown’s case, Mr Byrne said: “As we grow older we would, I hope, have an expectation that in due course we will be cared for by our children and our grandchildren.“That’s what we would hope for and expect for. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened on this case.”He said the defendants began financially exploiting their grandmother days after the elderly victim’s sister Lesseline Tucker died, leaving her with a substantial amount of money in five bank accounts.The Tucker siblings, along with a third sister, Marjorie, lived together at Tuckers’ Villa, on Middle Road, in Southampton.Mr Byrne said Lesseline managed the house and added Lenice as a joint signatory to four HSBC accounts and one Butterfield account prior to her death, aged 91.“She had a lot of money in those accounts,” said the prosecutor, adding that there was $420,000 in the HSBC accounts and $120,000 in the Butterfield account.“Clearly, by adding Lenice to those accounts, it was her intention that when she passed away, Lenice would have access to that money. The money belonged to Lenice Tucker.”He said what neither Lesseline or Lenice counted on was that “these defendants, Lenice Tucker’s granddaughters, would descend on Lenice Tucker very suddenly, within a week of Lesseline’s death, without even allowing Lenice Tucker a reasonable period to mourn the death of her sister.”Mr Byrne said Ms Smith, who is employed by Argus, and Ministry of Education worker Ms Bean took advantage of Ms Tucker at a “particularly vulnerable time in her life and stripped her of all the money in those bank accounts”.The sisters “escorted” their grandmother to HSBC’s Church Street branch on July 20, 2010, in order to be added as signatories to four accounts, Mr Byrne said.The next day, they went with her to Butterfield’s Rosebank branch, to be added to her account there.“It was quite clear that Lenice Tucker did not fully understand why she was there, did not fully understand what she was signing,” alleged Crown counsel Mr Byrne.He said she believed she was getting debit cards for the accounts.“When she does understand what’s being asked of her, she’s very clear that she did not think she was signing a form adding the granddaughters to those accounts, nor would she have done that if it had been properly explained to her.”He said once the sisters had access to the funds, they “started to run amok with those bank accounts”.The defendants are jointly charged with senior abuse and stealing credit balances from Ms Tucker to the value of $456,885.Ms Smith is also charged with stealing credit balances from her grandmother worth $29,695 and Ms Bean is accused of stealing a credit balance of $7,000.They deny all charges and the case continues.