Carer spent OAP's life savings on designer clothes and takeaway food
Nicola Gordon spent 92-year-old's money a few months before the pensioner died in a care home.
14 March 2012
A care home worker stole bank cards from an elderly resident and spent her life savings on designer clothing and football strips.
Nicola Gordon, 20, has been ordered to pay compensation even though her 92-year-old victim died before she was able to get her money back.
The 20-year-old committed a "huge breach of trust" when she stole more than £1000 of the pensioner's savings, sheriff Lindsay Foulis said during the hearing at Perth Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
He said: "This is a despicable crime. The matter to which you pled guilty is a mean crime.
"Old folk, at that age, are undoubtedly vulnerable - at least physically and perhaps also mentally - and they deserve respect from everyone.
"You were taking advantage of your position of trust. This was a very unpleasant offence.
"There may have been a degree of immaturity but anyone involved in what you were doing would have been well aware it was totally wrong."
The court heard that Gordon's victim, who has not been named, died three months after her money was stolen from her at the Dalnagar care home in Methven, Perthshire.
Gordon, of Drumgrain Avenue, Methven, admitted stealing £1200 from the vulnerable pensioner in a month, by stealing her bank cards from a safe in the home and using them to pay for goods between August 1 and 28, 2009. She claimed she had been encouraged by friends to keep using the bank card.
Fiscal depute Nicola Manison said: "Most of the transactions were for takeaway meals, designer clothing, phone top-ups and football strips."
She spent so much money so quickly that bank staff became suspicious about the amount of carry-out food and internet shopping being bought in the name of the 92-year-old.
A spokesman for Dalnagar Nursing Home has confirmed that Gordon, who had worked as a part-time care assistant for a few months, had been sacked.
He said: "We can confirm that she was dismissed for gross misconduct. I can confirm she is no longer employed at Dalnagar or anywhere else within the group."
SOURCE: Scotland TV
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