A CARE worker who admitted stealing more than £65,000 from an elderly dementia patient has been jailed for two years.

Zeenar Ahmed, 28, formerly of Adeline Street, Newport, took Glenys Ormond’s bank card and spent her savings between September 2010 and January 2011 while working as a care assistant at Llanyrafon care home, Cwmbran.

Mrs Ormond, a Parkinson’s sufferer, was described by Judge Rhys Rowlands as a “very vulnerable individual” being cared for at the home.

Her nephew Stephen Jones, who had power of attorney over her finances but did not find out about the theft until after his aunt had died, was said to feel “devastated” this had happened to Mrs Ormond at the end of her life.

Meirion Davies, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court yesterday that Mrs Ormond was admitted to the home on June 3, 2010, but died nine months later. It was then her family were informed her bank account was overdrawn by £70,000.

Between September 5, 2010, and January 18, 2011, more than 39 transactions were carried out using Mrs Ormond’s bank card amounting to £10,490, transactions which can be attributed to care assistant Ahmed, said Mr Davies.

Cash was spent in the West Midlands, withdrawn from cash points near the care home, and paid into the defendant’s account. The court heard that before Ahmed left the home in February 2011, she helped staff to get to work in the snow in her Mercedes 4x4, having previously driven a silver Vauxhall.

In total £65,976.57 was taken from Mrs Ormond’s bank account.

Mr Davies said: “It is no coincidence the defendant stopped working for the home because the account had been or had nearly been exhausted.”

Ahmed initially pleaded not guilty to theft but altered her plea at trial in February this year. Co-accused Shabnaz Arshad, 31, of Adeline Street, Newport, was found not guilty of theft by a jury.

Alex Woods, mitigating, said Ahmed went to Pakistan in May 2010 where it was revealed to her that she would be forced to marry her uncle’s son. She had to financially support his Visa application and was the sole provider for her mother and three siblings.

When Ahmed returned to the UK she fell pregnant by the man who was to be her future husband, and was disowned by her family.

Formerly a drinker and drug-taker, Ahmed converted to Islam in September 2011, the court heard.

Sentencing, Judge Rowlands said the offence wasn’t simply a breach of trust.

“It was a breach of a particular degree of trust because you were a carer looking after a very, very vulnerable individual indeed,” he said.

“This is a particularly serious case in view of the amount of time you were prepared to take advantage of the victim.”