A CARER from Bentham who admitted stealing £10,240 from a vulnerable, house-bound woman will be sentenced at Bradford Crown Court.

Carolyn Kay, 45, had cared for the 58-year-old woman for about five months after responding to her advert post on Facebook, Skipton Magistrates Court was told.

The court heard the woman, who has agoraphobia and depression, was house-bound and confined to her bed and employed Kay towards the end of the summer last year, because she was local and was a carer for her own mother.

She agreed to pay Kay £10 per hour and also £1,000 to be paid in advance to pay off a debt, for which she gave the woman her bank card and Personal Identification Number (PIN) said Martin Butterworth, prosecuting.

The woman mislaid her card for a while and when she found it again in January this year discovered there had been 51 unauthorised withdrawals from her bank since the previous September.

They included cash withdrawals from ATM machines, also online, and shop purchases and in early September, cash had also been withdrawn in Spain when the complainant was in hospital, said Mr Butterworth.

The complainant, said Mr Butterworth, was an extremely vulnerable person who relied on daily homecare and received Personal Independence Payment allowance.

Kay, who admitted theft from a person at numerous locations to the value of £10,240, between August 30, 2018 and January 10 this year, was sent to Bradford Crown Court by magistrates to be sentenced on November 29.

Magistrates agreed that their sentencing powers were not great enough and that Kay, of Mount Pleasant, High Bentham, should be dealt with at the higher court. She was allowed unconditional bail.

Magistrates ordered a report to be carried out on Kay before the sentencing date.