Jail for Tenbury carer who stole from the elderly (From Ludlow Advertiser)

Jail for Tenbury carer who stole from the elderly

11:35am Wednesday 29th August 2012 in News By Courts reporter

A 29-year-old home help who stole cash from the vulnerable elderly people she was caring for has been sent to jail.

Emma Clarke, of Bromyard Road, Tenbury Wells, was trusted to look after people so that they could stay in their own homes rather than going into residential care, Worcester Crown Court was told.

But she abused the trust and took bank cards and pin numbers to steal more than £5,000.

She also tricked her way into an elderly man’s home and stole £200 from a jacket in a wardrobe, Sharonjit Bahai, prosecuting, told the court.

Miss Bahai said Clarke had been employed by a company to visit and help people in their own homes in the Tenbury area.

Her first victim had found her “helpful and sociable” and had given her card details.

Clarke had used the card to make a number of transactions for herself, often within minutes of each other, totalling £2,690 between January 1 and November 18 last year.

The woman’s daughter became suspicious and alerted the bank, who stopped the card as Clarke tried to take out another £850 on November 18.

Her second victim was another elderly woman, who had dementia. Clarke obtained her card and pin number and used them to steal £2,642 between December 20 last year and January 13 this year.

While on bail for these offences, on April 5 this year, she tricked a work colleague into giving her the pin code to a lock at an elderly man’s home and burgled it, taking £200 while he was out.

A few days later she went into the home of another elderly client but was spotted. She said she had been looking for her children and had gone to the wrong address.

Danny Smith, defending, said Clarke had been very good at her job but had been in an abusive relationship and had been using drugs.

She was very remorseful and had used her time on remand in prison to end the relationship and get herself free of drugs, he said.

Clarke, a mother of two, pleaded guilty to two charges of theft, one of attempted theft and two burglary charges at an earlier hearing.

Judge John Cavell said she had taken advantage of vulnerable elderly people and her behaviour had been “thoroughly dishonest”.

She was jailed for a total of 21 months, minus the 117 days she has already spent in custody.