A granddaughter alleged to have siphoned almost half a million dollars from her 87-year-old grandmother’s bank accounts told a court yesterday: “I didn’t steal it.”Lorraine Smith, 46, of Lusher Hill, Warwick, took the witness stand in her own defence at the Supreme Court trial of her and her sister Audra-Ann Bean for theft and senior abuse.She told the jury that lawyer Myron Simmons advised her and Ms Bean to move hundreds of thousands of dollars of their grandmother Lenice Tucker’s money into accounts of their own so Ms Tucker’s son and another man couldn’t get it.The defendant said she and her sister didn’t tell Ms Tucker, of Middle Road, Southampton, before transferring the funds from accounts with HSBC and Butterfield banks but she felt “that she would have been okay with it”.After the money was moved, Ms Smith said, she had a conversation with her grandmother.“She didn’t have a reaction,” said the defendant. “She didn’t even make a comment about it.”Defence lawyer Larry Mussenden earlier told the jury that Ms Smith and Ms Bean, of Lusher Lane East, Warwick, were asked by their grandmother to become signatories on her bank accounts.He said the sisters had concerns about their father, Ivan Bean, and how he was obtaining money from his mother, Ms Tucker.“You’ll hear how it came to a head one day in October [2010],” said Mr Mussenden, adding that Mr Bean and maintenance man Alvin (Kelly) Jones were seen in the bank on that date.His clients “took some action”, he said, adding they sought legal advice about Mr Bean and Mr Jones and were advised to transfer the money.“You’ll also hear that they had asked Ms Tucker for permission to use the funds in various ways; that Ms Tucker gave them permission to use the funds.”He said his clients would say they always believed the money, almost $370,000 of which is frozen in two joint bank accounts of the defendants, belonged to their grandmother and her sister Marjorie and still belonged to them.During her evidence, Ms Smith told the jury her grandmother, whom she refers to as “Len”, worked at Harmony Hall and Four Ways Inn and that she helped her pay for health insurance after she finished work.She agreed she was Ms Tucker’s favourite granddaughter and described how her grandmother would bring food to her at her job at Argus.Ms Smith said she would visit Tuckers’ Villa, where her grandmother lived with Marjorie and another sister, Lesseline.The trial heard previously that Lesseline managed the household and added Ms Tucker as a joint signatory to four HSBC accounts and one Butterfield account, containing a total of $540,000, prior to her death, aged 91, on July 15, 2010.Ms Smith said on July 20, 2010, she received a call from Ms Bean asking her to come to Butterfield’s Rosebank branch because their grandmother “wanted us to go on her accounts”.She said she wasn’t able to go to Butterfield due to work but did meet her sister and grandmother later that day at HSBC, where it was explained that Ms Tucker’s accounts with Lesseline would be closed and a new account opened in all three names.The defendant was asked by Mr Mussenden if she ever had a conversation with Ms Tucker about Mr Bean and money.“I discussed with them that because of Ivan’s lifestyle, that please don’t let him take you anywhere to the bank,” she replied.She added she had been aware “for a very long time” of her father’s drug problems.Ms Smith told the hearing she knew Mr Jones, who did jobs around Tuckers’ Villa, and became aware he claimed Lesseline left him money in her will.Mr Mussenden asked: “Did that conflict with what you knew about the will?” Ms Smith said it did.She said she and her sister went to lawyer Mr Simmons with their concerns about their father and Mr Jones.“Mr Simmons advised us, because of our concerns, that we should transfer into an account in Audra-Ann and I’s name. They wouldn’t be able to take Len to get the money out of the bank.”The defendant said she and her sister opened an account at Butterfield on October 8, 2010, after their mother Avril Paul told them she had seen Mr Bean and Mr Jones in the bank.She said they transferred the money from their account with their grandmother but still considered the money to belong to Ms Tucker and Marjorie.“Was it ever your money?” asked Mr Mussenden. “No, it wasn’t,” replied Ms Smith.“You know the Crown say you stole it?” said Mr Mussenden. “I did not steal it,” she responded, adding that the money was transferred on the advice of Mr Simmons “to protect it from Ivan and Kelly”.She said she and Ms Bean also opened an account at HSBC in joint names and transferred money from their account with Ms Tucker.She repeated that the money belonged to her grandmother and Marjorie, adding that she did not steal it and that it was transferred on the advice of Mr Simmons.Ms Smith and Ms Bean deny multiple counts of theft and one count of senior abuse by financial exploitation.The case continues on Monday, when Ms Smith is expected to continue her evidence-in-chief.