A CARE home worker who stole £900 from an elderly resident has been jailed for ten months.

Alana Cullen, who was acting manager at Ashfield House in Cudworth, stole the money from Ivy Mosley, 75, using a bank card which was kept in the care home's office.

Suspicions were first raised in November 2006 when a social services officer went to the home to carry out an assessment of Mrs Mosley's finances to see if she was eligible for financial help.

Zaiban Alam, prosecuting at Sheffield Crown Court, said: "The defendant provided some financial information but none was up to date or current and there were no current account statements." This meant social services could not complete its investigation.

Mrs Mosley's son Tim became aware there were discrepancies after Ivy received a bank statement in the post in December 2006, which listed unauthorised withdrawals.

He complained and Cullen, of Burton Road, Monk Bretton, was suspended from her minimum wage job in January 2007.

Full report in all editions of this week's Chronicle.