Wicked carer stole from trusting pensioner
A thief has been told to do unpaid work after stealing £ 1400 from the elderly woman she cared for.
Margaret Cairns, 43, was sentenced to carry out 150 hours community service within a year and will now be subject to a supervision order for 18 months after being found guilty at Ayr Sheriff Court of stealing 75- year- old Mary Coburn’s credit card and attempting to withdraw thousands of pounds.
Cairns, who looked after the frail retired machinist, was busted on CCTV near ATM machines in Maybole around the time cash was taken out.
Ayr Sheriff Mhairi MacTaggart found her guilty of nine charges of withdrawing cash and attempting to pinch money from an RBS machine in the High Street and Keystore shop, rubbishing claims that Mrs Coburn had ‘ forced’ her to withdraw the money.
An earlier hearing highlighted how the bank contacted the Coburn family on January 13 to report 18 suspicious payments on the card.
Mrs Coburn went upstairs to retrieve her card from a purse in a drawer but discovered it was gone.
Last month, Sheri f f MacTaggart said that she was “satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt” that Cairns had used the card repeatedly after her victim explained how she would only withdraw cash from the post office in person and never at an ATM. Her son, Andrew then cancelled the card after his mother was “shocked” to discover £ 1400 had been spent on her card. But the nightmare didn’t stop there as Cairns, of Merkland Place, Kirkoswald, then attempted to trouser a further £ 2250- which was refused- withdrawing cash from machines on January 10, 11, 12 and 13.
Representing her in court, Mandy Stewart said: “She has taken this matter very seriously and she is fully aware of the severity of this matter.”