CArEr stolE monEy from wAr hEro

Susan Pell avoids jail sentence for theft

A carer who stole cash from a decorated World War Two hero has avoided a jail sentence. Susan Pell (65) was caught on camera stealing money from Peter Carpenter(89), whosurvived a shipwreck when Germans torpedoed his vessel, is now frail and uses a walking frametogetaroundhisSpald- ing bungalow.

Widower Peter has an aneurysm of the aorta – a bulging section of the body’s main artery – anddescribeshimself as “a ticking time bomb” because it is inoperable and will one day claim his life.

Pell, of Church Street, Pinchbeck, pleaded guilty at Boston Magistrates’ Court to stealing a total of £50fromthe war veteran, £20 and £30 on two respective occasions, November 1 and 4.

She was sentenced to a year-long community order and ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid community work as well as paying £50 compensation to Peter and a total of £170 in costs and charges.

Thewarherosayshewould have given Pell £20 if she had told himshewasshortofmoney.

But he said he doesn’t believe Pell needed to steal from him and said that she should have received a custodial sentence for taking the money. He said: “A couple of months in the nick would have done her good. If they gave her two months she would only have done a month.”

Peter joined the Merchant Navy in 1943 aged 15, and was onshipsin the perilous Arctic Convoys and supporting the Allied landings in Normandy. Hewas also one of only 12 survivors when his ship was torpedoed and he literally swam for his life.

Thecourt wastold Pell had no previous convictions.