A CARE worker who dodged prosecution for stealing thousands of pounds after claiming she was dying from cancer was last night behind bars.

Prosecutors dropped the theft case against lying Michelle Cox after she provided a letter - bogus, it turned out - from a consultant.

But a separate investigation by the Nursing and Midwifery Council revealed the hospital specialist had never heard of the 50-year-old.

She was then arrested for perverting the course of justice and was jailed for a year after admitting the offence at Teesside Crown Court.

The judge, Recorder Julian Goose, QC, told Cox that her crime was "especially serious" because it was done in "a very public way".

The court heard how she worked at a home in Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, when £3,000 - including residents' money - went missing.

Cox, of Glenfield Drive, Middlesbrough, was charged last year and her case was listed for a crown court trial after she denied the thefts.

She handed a letter purporting to be from the consultant at the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, saying she had ovarian cancer.

The letter said the cancer had spread and she had a limited life-span, and prosecutors decided it was not in the public interest to continue.

Officials involved in a parallel probe by the carer's governing body spoke to the consultant and he had no knowledge of the letter.

The original theft matters could not be resurrected, said prosecutor David Bradshaw, because formal not guilty pleas had been recorded.

Carl Swift, mitigating, said Cox had simply attempted to delay the trial, but "was in too deep" when the charges were dropped.

He said she was of previous good character - although the theft allegations had never been fully tested in a court.

Mr Recorder Goose told Cox: "The offence is especially serious given you have perverted the course of justice in a very public way.

"It is one that the public must recognise as leading to only one form of sentence."