A home carer who stole £4,900 from a dementia-suffering couple in their 90s has been jailed for 160 days.
Kirsty Ritchie took two debit cards from a house at Abbotsford Place, Galashiels, on April 2 and used them on numerous occasions between April 2 and July 2 to obtain the money from a cash point in the town’s Gala Park. The offence came to light when the daughter of the elderly couple – aged 91 and 92 – noticed unauthorised transactions.
Ritchie also obtained goods worth £4,451 by fraud from Amazon.co.uk between April 23 and June 27, by pretending she was the true holder of a debit card owned by a 41-year-old woman.
Solicitor Heather Stewart, representing Ritchie, claimed a custodial sentence would have a “detrimental effect” on her client’s young child, and urged Sheriff Peter Paterson to consider an alternative sentence.
“It is clearly a very serious offence and she is under no illusions about that,” said Ms Stewart, “but there are mitigating factors. She was under great pressure from an abusive partner at the time.”
The lawyer added that Ritchie, who has been working as a chambermaid, was keen to make repayment and felt she could do so in a month.
“She is assessed at low risk of reoffending and at low risk to others,” said Ms Stewart.
But at Selkirk Sheriff Court on Monday, Sheriff Paterson told Ritchie, 28, of Gala Park Court, Galashiels, he considered there was no alternative to custody for what he described as “extremely serious” offences.
He referred to the “magnitude of breach of trust”, adding: “I take account of the effect imprisonment will have on your daughter, but feel there is no alternative to custody.”