Teenager who stole jewellery from OAPs 'acted despicably'
A CARE assistant stole £2,400 of jewellery from pensioners at a nursing home and sold it to a pawnbroker to feed her heroin addiction.
Teenager Leanne Winter took treasured rings and necklaces from five men and women, aged 77 to 94, at Grangewood Lodge in Netherseal.
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OUTSIDE COURT: Leanne Winter admitted five charges of theft from a Netherseal care home at which she worked.
Two of the victims suffered from dementia, while another was partially sighted.
An employee at Swadlincote Money Shop contacted the police after becoming suspicious about the expensive jewellery she was bringing in.
Winter, 19, was yesterday sentenced at Derby Crown Court to eight months in a detention centre.
Cecilia Gutteridge, deputy manager at the Lullington Road care home, said she was surprised by how "light" the sentence was considering the victims Winter had targeted.
She said: "This affected a lot of staff as well as residents' relatives. Our job is to look after these people and protect them from this sort of thing. We carried out all the appropriate checks before she started working here and we employed her in good faith and trusted her."
Winter stole the items, either worn or kept in locked cabinets by the residents, while she worked at the nursing home between October 2008 and February this year.
Prosecutor Jon Wood said the missing jewellery was noticed by the residents' relatives. The daughter of an 89-year-old noticed her mother's necklaces had disappeared.
She said her mother told her that a care worker had said she should take them off before she had a shower.
Another of Winter's thefts was a heart-shaped pendant – a family heirloom – worn by a 90-year-old resident. She also stole a wedding ring from a 77-year-old suffering from dementia.
The court heard how the elderly man's daughter said she was saddened that someone felt capable of abusing their position and had taken advantage of a vulnerable person.
Mr Wood said Winter had been a customer at the High Street pawn shop for two years. But an employee had become suspicious when the goods she brought in to sell suddenly changed in value from £5 to £10 to as much as £160.
Winter made a total of £910 from selling the items but a jeweller estimated them to be worth £2,400. Mr Wood said that most of the stolen items were recovered at the pawn shop.
Winter, of Woodville Road, Swadlincote, admitted five charges of theft.
Justin Ablott , in mitigation, said Winter was remorseful about what she had done and her problem was a five-year addiction to heroin, which she now was determined to tackle.
Sentencing Winter, Judge John Gosling said it had been "despicable behaviour".
15 Comments
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by Kathryn, derby
Tuesday, September 15 2009, 2:56PM
“Brilliant Rob!!!”
by Robert, Littleover
Tuesday, September 15 2009, 2:54PM
“Re the placard idea.
How about shaving her head & tatooing "I steal from old ladies to fuel my drug habit".
Then when her hair grows back, shave it off again.”
by john, mickleover
Tuesday, September 15 2009, 2:46PM
“"On the day the BBC is reporting a 2/3 reduction in crime (in the test areas) by giving the major addicts free heroin, people here still enough to think the last 60 years of the Prohibition strategy will miraculously start working...?
Judge, Derby Report abuse commented on 15-Sep-2009 15:15 2
Giving them free heroin is a good idea - enough to put them to sleep PERMANENTLY is what they should be given.
As others have said, we have a generation of vermin on our streets.
How else was this girl paying for her habit? Many turn to prostitution as well as theft, benefit fraud, etc.
Our society needs cleaning up, before it's too late.”
by samantha, NOTTS
Tuesday, September 15 2009, 2:20PM
“OOOP FORGOT TO MENTION....A HEROIN ADDICT FROM THE AGE OF 14....WHAT THE HELL IS OUR WORLD COMING TOO. IF MY CHILD WAS AN ADDICT AT THE AGE OF 14, I AM DAMN SURE THEY WOULD NOT REACH THE AGE OF 15 STILL BEING AN ADDICT. THIS IS A DISGUSTING STORY. WHY DIDNT THE MOTHER & FATHER SORT THERE DAUGTHER OUT AT 14?????? BET THEY WISH THEY HAD DONE NOW!”
by samantha, NOTTS
Tuesday, September 15 2009, 2:17PM
“SARAH FROM DERBY, OBVIOUSLY SHE DID NOT TURN UP FOR HER JOB INTERVIEW LOOKING LIKE THAT!
RAMS FAN YOU SAY "there's a whole generation of disrespectful scum coming through.
VERY VERY TRUE..
I THINK THE DIRTY SCAG HEAD SHOULD HAVE GOT A LONGER SENTENCE, TAKING THINGS FROM DEFENCELESS ELDERLY PEOPLE IS THE LOWEST.
WHAT A PROFIT THE PAWN SHOP MUST BE MAKING...BUYING FOR £900ISH, WORTH £2500!!!!!”
by Judge, Derby
Tuesday, September 15 2009, 2:15PM
“On the day the BBC is reporting a 2/3 reduction in crime (in the test areas) by giving the major addicts free heroin, people here still enough to think the last 60 years of the Prohibition strategy will miraculously start working...?
Iran executes heroin addicts, yet in some areas up to 80% of the Police are addicted...
Treat it as a medical issue, and de-glamourise it!”
by Kathryn, derby
Tuesday, September 15 2009, 2:09PM
“Make her walk around Swad with a placard reading,
"I steal from old ladies to fuel my drug habit" Bet her mother's proud as punch.”
by Rams Fan, Oakwood
Tuesday, September 15 2009, 1:53PM
“I smoke and drink and eat what I fancy, leaving me with a cuddly figure rather than the hewn-from-granite torso of my youth...
the point is, I pay for my vices and wonts, and I pay for them through work. I don't rob old ladies on the street or vulnerable pensioners in their 'care home', nor do I knock gravestones over when I haven't had a cigarette for an hour or so.
The do-gooders can hug all the hoodies they want, the facts are that there are a far greater percentage of scum kids coming through now than there ever has been before, and seemingly without much if any reproach from what are laughingly called "The Authorities"... authority is not something these animals recognise, yet it folds around them like a cloak when it really should be the strongest hand of discipline.
Kids having kids having kids... this is where it's led us. Hundreds of years of breeding wiped out in two generations, and we're almost right back where we started when we first thought to take cover in caves.”
by john, mickleover
Tuesday, September 15 2009, 1:44PM
“"And John just something for you to ponder...nicotine is a drug! GAZ, Derby "
So is alcohol, but the difference is they are LEGAL substances which the Government could not function without. Indeed without the tax on tobacco the NHS would be bankrupt.
In my view alcohol is far more dangerous - ask any victim of drink drivers. However, drinking is legal, so long as you dont drive afterwards.
The idea is to get criminals off the streets and off the illegal drugs which they use.
Legal substances do not totally alter the personality of the use, heroin etc do. .
I realise that there are health facists around who wouild dictate to everyone what they can and cannot do, what they can and cannot eat, etc. Sad deluded fools who follow the latest "trend" by eating only whats "healthy". Of course, next week the "experts" will decide its not healthy after all.
But this is not about what the health facists want - it's about criminals using illegal drugs.
Take all the users off the streets and the pushers would be out of business.”
by Nigella, Derbyshire
Tuesday, September 15 2009, 1:34PM
“Should be drug rehabilitation until she is clean, proved by random testing.
Then the 8 month sentence, after that, say a further 5 years of random tests, any failures, its back inside for another 8 months.
These feral mutations need to understand rapidly we've had enough.”