Is life worth living now? Words of cancer sufferer, 92, left devastated by cruel carer who stole more than £21,000...and is then spared jail
AN evil carer who stole over £21,000 from a cancer-stricken 92-year-old has walked free from court despite her victim pleading for her to be jailed.
Heartless Clare Henderson was trusted to look after the vulnerable pensioner, who is almost completely blind and deaf, and relies on carers helping her four times a day.
But instead within weeks of taking up her role she abused her position of trust to raid the woman’s accounts on an almost daily basis.
Henderson, 43, then blew the stolen pensioner’s life-savings on online gambling sites.
A court heard her victim, who has not been named, said she was left wondering if her life was worth living after the betrayal.
Henderson of Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, walked free from Newcastle Crown Court on a suspended prison sentence despite the pensioner’s plea for her to be jailed. In her impact statement read to the court the victim said: “I felt sick to the stomach at the time and still feel that way now. Is life worth living anymore? If she needed money, I would have helped her.
“It is proper that she should go to jail for what she did because it is against the law and she should abide by the law.” Henderson had been working for care agency Direct Health for only two months when she started using a bank card belonging to the woman.
She used the money for online gambling and gaming and to pay off household bills and debts.
The fraudster even continued to help herself to cash when the elderly victim was in hospital.
Tony Cornberg, prosecuting, told the court: “The complainant was almost totally mostly deaf, suffering bone cancer and was housebound.
“In mid-October 2014, the defendant began to abuse her trusted position by using the complainant’s bank card to make withdrawals from her Lloyds bank account.”
When Henderson’s home was raided, police found a £35,000 HSBC cheque from the victim’s bank which had not yet been cashed.
The victim has since had her money repaid by her banks.
Henderson admitted four fraud charges, between October 2014 and March 2015, totalling £21,537.
Judge Robert Adams sentenced Henderson to 18 months suspended for 18 months and gave her a six-month, night time curfew.
Judge Adams said it was “despicable” offending, but there were mitigating circumstances, including Henderson’s own poor health and hardworking background. blind, from completely