Woman who stole £64,000 from care home given probation

A Londonderry office worker who stole more than £64,000 from adults with learning difficulties has been put on probation. The 35-year-old woman confessed to police after being suspended from her work at a Waterside care home.

Juanita Ferguson from Lower Nassau Street in Rosemount stole the cash over a two-year period from 35 adults while working in Meadowbank Care Home.

The money was later paid back by the owner of the care home on Trench Road.

Ferguson admitted the theft when she walked into a police station the day after being suspended from work.

Londonderry Crown Court was told she spent the money, but then had to sell her home to pay off her father’s debts.

Her house was also attacked and her children verbally abused after her first court appearance.

Judge Desmond Marrinan said only Ferguson’s victims could forgive her but he said the people who attacked her home and abused her children were “cowardly hooligans”.

Ferguson was put on probation for two years and ordered to carry out 100 hours of community service.