A THIEVING carer was caught on camera helping himself to an elderly dementia sufferer’s pension during a home visit.

The 87-year-old victim’s suspicious son installed the hidden camera, focusing on her living room sideboard, where he left her pension payments.

Durham Crown Court was told that he placed £200 in a drawer and £30 in his mother’s purse, noting the serial numbers.

Jennifer Haigh, prosecuting, said that visiting carer Leslie Keith was seen removing money from the purse and drawer on footage shot at the house, in Burnhope, County Durham, on December 4 last year.

Keith, one of several agency carers who routinely called at the house, made the excuse he was looking for dressings.

Miss Haigh said he was arrested and twice denied the allegations in police interviews.

But, on being shown the incriminating footage, confessed.

He claimed he took the money “on impulse”, spending £40 on fuel and throwing away the rest.

Keith, of Barrington Way, Bowburn, near Durham, admitted theft and asked for two similar offences to be considered, for sums totalling £600.

Stuart Graham, mitigating, said Keith held down his job as a carer for 13 years.

“He realises he’s lost all that now and can’t work again in any way where trust is a question,” he said.

Mr Graham said Keith plans to attend college to gain qualifications for a job he would be permitted to do, despite the conviction.

“He is thoroughly ashamed of what he did and has suffered for it, having been attacked and beaten up,” he said.

Mr Graham added that the money can be repaid.

Recorder Ian Atherton told Keith: “You were employed in the caring sector.

“We have an increasingly elderly population which means more and more people will be required to do your sort of work, going into homes of vulnerable people, under trust.

“You breached this trust on three occasions.”

Recorder Atherton initially jailed Keith for four months, but given his previous good character and the “boundaries”

of sentencing guidelines, recalled him.

He replaced it with a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, during which Keith must undergo probation supervision and repay the £600.