Winston, a bulldog that died shortly after being in the care of Judith Webby (inset), a woman with a chequered history, who also abused Winston's owners. Photo: Supplied / New Zealand Herald
A woman who had been banned from a popular house-sitting website has had a beloved family dog die on her watch and then abused its owners before leaving their home with all the doors and windows wide open.
"You stuffed up ... you picked a 74yr old woman to look after huge fat bulldog that was clearly unwell," house-sitter Elizabeth Somerfield told a man after he questioned why his healthy English bulldog, Winston, had died within a few days of him going on holiday.
Somerfield, who has a long track record of upsetting people, went on to tell the man he was an "egotistical f***wit" and that his home "stinks of dogs", before leaving all the windows and doors open in the house with the eight air conditioning units on.
"Hope you all have horrible holiday and KARMA has a way of payback and it will happen," she wrote as a final parting.
While Somerfield is the name on her current passport, she's had many names over the years and cycles through various aliases but was christened Judith Webby.
In 2022, Webby was found by the highest human rights court in the country to have subjected her Sudanese flatmate to such an extensive racist tirade that she was ordered to pay him $28,000 in compensation.
Following that article, a series of complainants contacted NZME with similar stories that painted a picture of a serial scammer who preyed on vulnerable immigrants and students.
Fast-forward to this year and Winston's owners were looking for someone to watch their home and two dogs while they went overseas on holiday.
After finding Webby, now going by the name Elizabeth Somerfield, on Kiwi House Sitters and conducting an interview, the kind "grandmotherly figure" was hired.
Winston the bulldog. Photo: Supplied / New Zealand Herald
The man, who didn't want to be named, believes that Somerfield took Winston for a walk off-lead, in the sun, and for too long, which went against very clear instructions he left for the pet-sitter.
"That breed simply cannot be overstimulated, it's something to keep in mind and something we stressed," the man told NZME.
"This is a case of gross negligence. She knew exactly what needed to be done. She had instructions in writing."
Winston had been for a full check-up the day before the family left and his vet noted he was in good health, with no underlying conditions.
The man has CCTV in his home and garage and Somerfield can be seen leaving with Winston on a walk before returning some 40 minutes later. The dog can be heard breathing loudly, before lying down in the garage, his breath becoming increasingly laboured.
From his hotel room in Bali, the dog's owner could hear Winston's breathing becoming worse and he frantically tried to call the pet-sitter to intervene.
But he was too late.
"I'm trying to separate the emotion from the logic ... I don't want to accuse someone of something they have not done," he said.
"Even if he was in that state, she could have reacted in a better way."
After Winston's death, the man says he asked Somerfield on WhatsApp repeatedly if she was okay, before organising someone to come and collect his surviving dog Apollo and asking her to leave his house.
Somerfield then allegedly turned on the man, accusing him of attempting to throw her out into the street. She initially refused to leave the property but the man said she eventually did but left all the windows and doors open.
Judith Webby changed her name to Louise Harrison but is now going by Elizabeth Somerfield, or Liz. Photo: Supplied / New Zealand Herald
Webby told NZME in an emailed statement that the dog's owner called her from overseas after hearing his dog having trouble breathing.
"I assumed he would cool down, covered him with wet towels etc and monitored him for an hour, went to check on him again, he was not breathing," she said.
"Immediately contacted owner and vet, neighbours had to come and assist me getting him into car whereby [at] this stage he had passed.
"Extremely sad and I understand completely owner being angry and upset but to accuse me of killing the dog is absurd, ring the vet, I think dog had heart problem [that was] not disclosed."
Webby disputes having walked Winston too far, but conceded he was not on a lead and had let him run, despite specific instructions not to let him do so.
"Accidents happen unfortunately but no animal before this has ever come to harm in my care," Webby said, before claiming she was going to leave the country.
The Talented Ms Webby
Winston wasn't the first pet Webby has looked after, nor is the clash with his owner afterwards the first time she's turned on someone.
People who have previously spoken to NZME about her claim that she is a serial scammer. They alleged her scam was a simple but effective one: she would rent an upmarket multi-bedroom house before pretending to own it and then sublet the rooms while she posed as an in-house landlord.
Tenants would rent rooms and she would collect bond and rent in advance, before inventing some kind of problem or starting a conflict with the new renters. They claim Webby would then make their lives hell until they moved out, forfeiting any money they'd paid simply to get away from her.
Then Webby would simply fill the rooms again with more sub-letters and repeat the process.
Judith Webby now goes by the name Elizabeth Somerfield. Photo: Supplied / New Zealand Herald
NZME has seen documents relating to seven people claiming to be Webby's victims, with complaints spanning a decade. Some of them have taken her to the Disputes Tribunal and won orders that she pay them back bond and rent, others were just happy to put the situation, and Webby, in the rearview mirror.
None of those whom NZME spoke to at the time had managed to successfully recoup any of the money Webby took from them, with the exception of one homeowner who was able to get a deduction taken directly from Webby's pension.
Since that article, NZME tracked Webby to an address in Cambridge, where she had to terminate her tenancy following damage to the property. By this time, Webby had changed her name to Louise Harrison, and a Tenancy Tribunal order notes that she caused nearly $7000 worth of damage to the house before being forced to leave.
From there, Webby moved back to Auckland, where she rented another house on the North Shore before employing the same modus operandi with another set of young renters, who found the real landlord and told him what was happening.
That landlord, Peter Bone, took Webby to the Tenancy Tribunal, hoping to evict her for breaching a no sub-letting clause in the tenancy agreement, and on the basis that he never would have leased the property to her if he'd known who she was.
At a tribunal hearing earlier this year, Webby eventually conceded to the eviction notice and she left the property with consent, to Bone's immense relief.
Kiwi House Sitters
Webby appeared to have moved back to Cambridge, where she was recently on the books for the house-sitting website Kiwi House Sitters.
Tonka Watson employed Webby, now going by the name Elizabeth McLeod, through the site to look after her fox terrier x poodle, TJ, for several weeks while she travelled the South Island.
However, within days Webby sent photos of the dog off-lead, despite a request from Watson to walk him on one at all times.
Webby then claimed she was a professional dog trainer and said she had never seen such a badly behaved dog.
Watson, who is actually a professional dog trainer, was offended by the messages, which quickly turned sour, and asked Webby to leave her house while she sorted out friends to pick up her dog.
But she claims Webby wouldn't leave.
"No, I w9nt [sic] leave tomorrow, you signed a contract which I expect you to honour or pay for my Airbnb for rest of week," Webby said in a message to Watson, before demanding she be paid $1000.
"Until money is in my account, I will remain here with copy of contract," a follow-up message reads.
Watson agreed to pay Webby $1000 and find her alternative accommodation for the week but Webby quickly upped her demand to $2500, which she claimed would pay for an Airbnb for the week.
"Come up with payment ... [for the] Airbnb or alternative for four weeks or we will meet in court," Webby said, before threatening to take Watson to the Disputes Tribunal for $8000.
Watson told NZME she believed it was a standover tactic and a variation on a scam Webby had been using on vulnerable renters.
However, in this case she says Webby refused to move out of her house unless she was effectively paid out.
"She basically said she wasn't going to leave unless we gave her money," Watson said.
"She was basically then trying to exploit me, I guess she knew we didn't want her in the house."
Watson didn't end up paying Webby any money and had a friend serve a trespass notice on her and remove her from the property.
"I've worked in HR, I know how to keep my cool and not be baited, and I had two massively sleepless nights because of this, and I know how to look after myself, and I just think somebody more vulnerable than me, this could cause them horrendous heartache."
Watson said she just doesn't want anyone else going through what she went through while she was trying to have a holiday, but instead spent a week of it worrying about a woman living in her house, sending her abusive messages and refusing to leave.
Webby told NZME that it was Watson who had breached the contract and then refused to provide her with alternative accommodation.
'It all looked perfect'
Kiwi House Sitters said it couldn't disclose the extent of its investigation but said Webby had been removed from its site and had received a lifetime ban.
Unfortunately for Winston's owners, he had already made contact with Webby through the site before she was banned and had interviewed her for the position.
He said she came across as a kindly, grandmotherly figure whom he trusted with his dogs.
"Her story was that she'd been house-sitting for a long time, and that she'd owned a kindergarten for many years," he said.
"It all looked perfect."
The dog's owners, who are still overseas at the moment, have filed a police report for trespassing after Webby returned to the house, despite being told not to.
"Losing Winston was devastating enough but then having someone completely disregard that ... to have your dog die and then have a scammer in your house and speak to me so rudely," he said.
"It's not a holiday any more because we have this cloud hanging over us."
-This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.