A CARE worker stole money from the pocket of an elderly, vulnerable patient while he was putting him to bed, a court heard yesterday.

Harrogate magistrates heard how Simon Nicholls took £90 from the trouser pocket of Parkinson's disease sufferer Herbert Barrett while he was undressing him.

Nicholls, 22, pleaded guilty to theft yesterday.

Paul Abrahams, prosecuting, said the offence had been committed in the home Mr Barrett shared with his wife Margaret in Harrogate, which Nicholls went to in his job as a care worker with a nursing home.

Mr Abrahams said Nicholls had signed an attendance log, said goodbye to Mrs Barrett and left before it was discovered cash was missing.

In mitigation, Geoffrey Rogers said Nicholls, who also admitted failing to answer bail, had found personal problems were piling up on him.

He was homeless after having to leave a caravan at the Lido Park in Wetherby Road, Knaresborough, his father had died, his mother had been diagnosed with angina, a business had collapsed and his girlfriend had been killed in a road accident.

"All these came together and quite simply, he was not thinking straight," said Mr Rogers.

He said Nicholls failed to attend court on January 19 to answer the theft charge because he believed he would be locked up.

He added: "But he thought about things, realised his attitude was not right and handed himself in the next day."

Court chairman David Davies, who heard Nicholls had been in custody since his surrender, told him that theft from a particularly vulnerable elderly person was "deeply unattractive".

He ordered him to do 80 hours of unpaid work. Compensation of £90 and costs of £45 were also imposed.