Carer who stole from couple suffering from dementia asked to repay only £1

A woman who stole more than £12,000 from a couple suffering from dementia has been asked to repay just £1. The incident occurred in Sittingbourne, Kent last year between January and April 2021.

The 30-year-old woman named Gemma Day was appointed as one of the carers for the couple, Dennis and Ann Baldock, by a private company called Welcome Home.

During the hearing on Friday, a court found that Day, along with a female colleague of hers, regularly withdrew money in £250 sums over a period of four months.

Mr. Badlock was bedridden during the months that Day had been withdrawing cash from the couple's joint bank account. The carers used to visit the couple three times a day and had access to the couple's bank cards and PINs.

The couple had no clue about the theft, but the "unusual and recurring" transactions on their joint bank account were noticed by one of their relatives, per a report in The Mirror.

The family then informed the police and following an investigation, CCTV footage showed Day taking the money from a cashpoint. She later pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position.

She had earlier said that she withdrew around £6,000 while a second person, who has not yet been charged, withdrew the rest of the £12,170.

The single mother has four children, and has been spared jail time as that would "have a harmful impact on her children." Day later informed the court that she can only afford to repay the nominal £1.

Judge Robert Lazarus acknowledged that the woman has no income at the moment other than universal credit, has no assets, and has store card debts totalling approximately £8,000.

The judge gave her a week to pay, with a day's imprisonment in default and said that asking her to repay more "could also create yet further debt and an additional pressure which might result in a return to some sort of inquisitive crime."

"I am entirely satisfied this defendant cannot afford to pay compensation, much as I would like to make an order given the frankly horrific nature of the offence and the breach of trust involved," he said.

Day has also been handed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years, with 200 hours of unpaid work and 30 rehabilitation activity sessions.