A callous thief who shoved her disabled 74-year-old victim out of his wheelchair to rob him of £10 has been jailed for more than three years. Lisa Carmichael targeted her vulnerable victim by posing as a carer then left him lying helpless on the ground while she rummaged round his home.
The drug addict gathered around £10 in loose change before walking past him with the money and leaving him unable to get up off the floor. Graham Beer was eventually able to activate his community alarm and he was found still lying helpless on the ground when police officers arrived on the scene.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told it was the second time she had targeted an elderly man in the same street in the space of less than a fortnight. Sheriff Paul Brown jailed her for 40 months and added a further 12 months supervised release "in order to protect the public from the risk of further serious harm."
The sheriff told Carmichael: "These are serious offences against vulnerable victims, against a background of an offending history, so there is no alternative to custody."
Carmichael, 39, from Dundee, admitted trying to rob 80-year-old Robert Varney by taking his wallet from his trouser pocket on December 29, 2021. She admitted returning to Abbotsford Street on January 10, 2022, and attacking Mr Beer by entering his property and knocking him from his wheelchair before robbing him.
Fiscal depute Gavin Burton told the court: "The first complainer is 80 and had known the accused since last summer. He had invited her in on a few occasions. He was on a video call to his daughter when his buzzer went off, so he allowed access to the close, because he thought it would be his ex-wife.
"He unlocked the door in the same belief. The accused immediately came in. He shouted at her to leave the address. He tried to push her out. She forcibly and repeatedly tried to grab his wallet from his back trouser pocket. She eventually ceased her attempt and left. The complainer's daughter was on the video call throughout."
Mr Burton said Mr Beer had known the accused for a few weeks and had paid her previously to change a lightbulb for him. She was seen pulling up outside the property in a taxi.
Moments later, Mr Beer heard a knock at the door and Carmichael told him: "It's your carer." Mr Burton said: "He opened the door and realised it was the accused, rather than his carer. He instructed her to leave and tried to shut the door on her.
"She pushed through and barged past, knocking him off his wheelchair and onto the floor as she did so. A neighbour heard a disturbance from the flat. She took approximately £10 in change from the property before returning to the taxi she arrived in.
"The complainer was stuck on the floor. He activated the community alarm and informed care staff what had occurred. Police arrived and found him still stuck on the floor."
He was helped back into his wheelchair, and Carmichael was later traced at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. She told officers: "I'm sorry for what I've done."
Solicitor Ross Donnelly, defending, said: "All I can do is reiterate how sorry she is about the effect this offending has had on these two men. The drug addiction she was suffering from was so severe she was unable to control it and step away from this type of offending.
"She has been able to articulately express her own disgust at herself and she knows the view society takes of people who exploit elderly people in this way."
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