Dishonest Care Assistant Stole From Pensioners

A dishonest home care assistant who stole from trusting and vulnerable pensioners has been jailed for eight months.

The elderly victims had looked upon Lisa Ann Wade as a friend and were heartbroken to learn she had stolen from them.

The 31-year-old was caught in a sting operation set up by police after her boss received complaints about her.

Four £20 notes were deliberately planted in an elderly woman customer’s handbag.

Meena Evans, prosecuting, said Wade took the cash during a routine visit to carry out domestic chores at the victim’s home.

She was stopped soon after in her car.

The money was recovered and she confessed.

Several stolen items were recovered during a home search.

Wade also admitted stealing bank and credit cards from postal packets when she briefly worked for the Royal Mail, Leicester Crown Court was told.

She pleaded guilty to theft of a black purse containing £15 from a 78-year-old Blaby woman’s home.

She admitted theft of two decorative cups from an 89-year-old in Lutterworth, a carriage clock from a 93-year-old woman in Broughton Astley, £20 from a 70-year-old in Stoney Stanton and a pearl necklace from an 89-year-old in Sharnford, between October 2006 and last June.

She also admitted theft during the £80 sting operation in Peatling Magna, on the June 30 last year.

Wade, of Chevin Avenue, Braunstone Frith, Leicester, asked for 15 other thefts to be considered – seven of them also involving cash and possessions from elderly people she was employed to look after. The others involved thefts of bank and credit cards from Royal Mail.