Carer faces jail after stealing more than £7,000 from housebound patient

She spent a further £5,000 of the victim’s money on online gambling and purchases from Amazon.

The total amount stolen by Anderson rocketed past £7,000.

Anderson had been employed by a care company called Be Kind at the time of her offending.

Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard that Ms O’Neile required round-the-clock care and was unable to leave her home.

Prosecutor Mark Edwards described the victim as "a vulnerable female" who needed constant care.

He told the court: "The defendant visited her home regularly.

"She would take a list and her bank card and do her shopping for her."

The prosecutor explained that it was "normal practice" for patients to hand over cash to their carers to carry out shopping on their behalf.

However, because Ms O’Neile was housebound, she could not get to a cash machine herself.

Mr Edwards said: "Hence, she gave her card and the PIN number to the defendant."

The fraud came to light in October 2024 when Ms O’Neile’s bank flagged suspicious activity on her account.

Upon checking her finances, she discovered that substantial amounts of money had been taken.

Anderson pleaded guilty to fraud on Wednesday and now faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

The case comes just weeks after another fraudster was jailed after stealing £91,000 from a breast cancer charity to fund a lavish wedding and honeymoon.

Tameem Choudhury, a 29-year-old finance worker from Stoke Newington, worked within Breast Cancer Now’s finance team.

He carried out the fraud by redirecting funds intended for The Royal Marsden Hospital into his personal bank account.

The stolen funds were spent on luxury items, flights to Qatar, wedding and honeymoon expenses, and various retail purchases.

Choudhury was sentenced to 30 months behind bars.