Cocaine-taking care worker left Leeds resident with 16 pence after spending £10,000 on drugs and Magaluf holiday

Heartless Deborah Reith from Cross Gates was rumbled after social services raised concerns over the man’s health after she had not visited him for days and left him with no food.

An investigation found that fees for his care had not been paid for months and was left with an unpaid water bill of more than £1,600 for his Halton Moor home.

Reith had withdrawn more than £10,000 of the vulnerable man’s cash and spent it on her herself, including up to £100-a-time on cocaine and the break in Majorca.

She had drained his account over a period of seven-and-a-half months taking “excessive amounts”, prosecutor Robert Galley told Leeds Crown Court.

The 49-year-old made frequent transactions ranging from £1,100 to £2,500 between October 2021 to May 2022. She withdrew cash up to six times a month after the man trusted her with his bank account.

The court was told that he had worked for the care company Grace Care Services for four years before it went into liquidation and was taken over another firm, when she was finally caught out.

Reith, of Maryfield Avenue, was interviewed by police in September last year and confessed to taking the cash. A total of £15,740 was withdrawn from the man’s account, but it was agreed that Reith had spent around £10,000 on herself. She admitted an offence of theft by employee.

Mitigating, Michael Walsh said like many cases, she had taken the money with an intention to pay it back but the situation had “snowballed”.

He said that she had debts amounting to £28,000 and it had been “heart-breaking” for Reith having to tell her family of her crime, although he conceded she was the “author of he own misfortune”.

He said: “It does not provide an excuse, but that the time she was in the throws of using Class A drugs. There’s no suggestion she was dependent but nevertheless, there was a perceived need for money.”

This was questioned by Judge Penelope Belcher, who suggested that if she was not addicted to the drug, she would not have needed to take the cash.

She told Reith: “You were in charge of looking after this man and you had been removing his money. None of the usual records had been kept and it became obvious that excessive amounts of cash were being withdrawn from his bank account.

"It was an abuse of trust for your own lifestyle. You were not somebody in need, it was purely for your own lifestyle. You took the opportunity to take money to spend on cocaine, for a holiday and for Christmas presents.”

She handed Reith 12 months’ jail, suspended for two years, gave her 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days and ordered her to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

A Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) hearing has been set for September 18 in which it will be discussed if any of the money can be recouped from Reith.