09/01/06 - Care home worker spared jail term.

A senior worker at a care home in Essex has been spared jail after stealing nearly £5,000 from residents.

Michaela Shears, 38, of Collar Road in Harwich, took the money from the accounts of mainly elderly people, many of whom have Alzheimer's.

She was given a suspended jail term and ordered to pay full compensation at Colchester Magistrates Court.

The court heard that Shears had run up debts approaching £20,000 after a divorce.

Over a period of nearly a year, she stole around £4,900, after being entrusted with the cash machine cards and pin details of several residents at the home in Wivenhoe.

Her sentence of 12 months in prison was suspended for two years because of her previous good character.

Source :BBC