A WOMAN stole more than £2,000 from elderly residents to replace money missing from the care home where she worked, a court heard.

Suzanne Scott-Parnaby took sums of between £32 and £769 from five residents, as well as amounts belonging to Beeches Care Home, in Kelloe, County Durham.

The 40-year-old admitted eight charges of theft, committed over a seven-month period last year, at Durham Crown Court last month.

She returned to court yesterday with the threat of a jail term hanging over her.

The court was told that Scott-Parnaby, of Petterson Dale, Coxhoe, near Durham, began taking money to make up for £1,000 missing from the home's accounts.

Katherine Dunn, in mitigation, told the court that Scott-Parnaby's responsibilities increased to the point where she was in charge of the financial running of the home on a day-to-day basis.

Miss Dunn said: "She realised that £1,000 had gone missing and she felt if she reported it she would lose her job, which she loved."

After initially using her own money to cover the loss, she then borrowed cash and later began taking money from pensioners, said Miss Dunn.

Jamie Adams, prosecuting, said the home repaid all the residents who lost money.

Recorder Alaric Dalziel said: "People in a position of trust who steal will normally go to prison."

But, because of her previous good character, her ill-health and her guilty pleas, he was able to avoid imposing a jail term, he said.

Scott-Parnaby was given a 12-month community rehabilitation sentence, and ordered to pay the home £500 compensation.