Oldbury care home worker used clients' credit cards to treat herself and lover (From Halesowen News)

Oldbury care home worker used clients' credit cards to treat herself and lover

4:17pm Thursday 2nd August 2012 in News

A CARE home support worker took advantage of three vulnerable clients by using their credit cards to spend on herself and her lover, a court heard.

One of Amandeep Gill’s victims at the Oldbury home was a wheelchair-bound woman with cerebral palsy whose card she used to buy £700 worth of disc jockey equipment to impress her boyfriend.

The 20-year-old paid for accommodation with the card at a hotel in the area, bought more than £120 worth of perfume and paid her own £120 telephone bill.

Howard Searle, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court that Gill had worked at the Edghill Court home, Vicarage Road, for about 11 months and also used credit cards belonging to two other residents to withdraw money from their savings accounts.

She took nearly £1,700 from her victims and also stole £110 from the care home's petty cashbox.

Gill, of Cadbury House, Carters Green, West Bromwich, was given an eight month prison sentence suspended for two years after admitting eight charges of fraud and three of theft.

She was also placed on supervision for two years and ordered to obey a three month curfew between the hours of 8pm and 7am.

The home specialises in support for disabled people and those with challenging behaviour and Judge Michael Dudley told Gill she had clearly known her victims were vulnerable.

He said Gill had felt she needed to impress her new boyfriend but it was to her credit that she had given herself up to the police.

Timothy Harrington, defending, said Gill was full of shame and remorse and had ended the relationship.