A carer who blew an elderly woman's savings on Amazon and eBay shopping sprees was spared jail.
Nicola Brimage targeted a vulnerable 78-year-old who has Parkinson's disease and is housebound.
The 32-year-old helped herself to nearly £6,000 - leaving her victim in her overdraft and feeling "devastated".
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But after claiming she "couldn't stop" and "just kept on spending", Brimage today walked free from court.
Brimage, of Gautby Road, Bidston, cried throughout her sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court.
And she sobbed when a heartbreaking statement made by her victim, who the ECHO has chosen not to name, was read out.
The pensioner said: "I feel taking advantage of elderly people is cruel and as low as it gets."
The court heard although it was against the rules of the care agency she worked for, Brimage started helping her victim with shopping, who provided her cash card and PIN, and trusted her to visit ATMs and withdraw cash.
The theft, between February 2021 and July 2021, was exposed when NatWest contacted the woman to say she had gone into her overdraft.
Paul Blasbery, prosecuting, said the victim in turn contacted her son, who checked bank statements and compiled a spreadsheet, which he gave to the police.
Officers spoke to Amazon, eBay and PayPal, who discovered Brimage had used her own name and email account when making £5,948.50 of purchases.
When officers arrested Brimage at her home on September 8, they discovered items bought online.
Mr Blasbery confirmed none of these were "essential items for living" and were "general household goods and effectively some luxury items".
When interviewed by police, Brimage said her victim had asked her to withdraw £250 in cash on several occasions and had given her the card and PIN.
Mr Blasbery said she claimed after making a payment for the victim on her phone the card details must have been saved and when making payments to PayPal and eBay, she had clicked on those details "by mistake".
However, when confronted with the evidence she confessed.
Mr Blasbery said: "She stated she didn't realise how much she had spent. She said she just kept on spending.
"She had moved into a new house and wanted new things to furnish it. She stated the temptation of having access to the victim's bank card was too much to resist."
Mr Blasbery said "thankfully" NatWest had reimbursed the victim in full.
Brimage, who admitted theft, had no previous convictions.
Ben Berkson, defending, said: "Nothing I will say will underplay the greedy and callous crime here."
He said Brimage was a young, bright woman who had spent a lot of her adult life "dutifully caring for the vulnerable", but had been at "a very low point" last year.
Mr Berkson said: "Downtrodden, controlled, shamed and abused by a previous long term partner, she sadly instructs me she felt worthless and it was that lack of confidence and hope which switched off her usual sense of right and wrong."
He said his client felt she "just could not stop" and the unsophisticated crime was carried out by someone who was not usually a con artist but "someone who has made a terrible mistake".
The lawyer suggested Brimage had strong personal mitigation, including her previous good character, and had been referred for counselling since she was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in 2019 and was on prescribed medication for both those conditions and a degenerative spinal disease.
He said Brimage was currently on benefits after losing the job with the first care agency, and being dismissed by another care agency in Wirral after she was declared unfit to work, but she was now job hunting again.
Mr Berkson said: "Clearly the loss of her job and a career she treasured has been a horrible loss for her as well."
He added his remorseful client "feels terrible" and that she had "learned a lesson and is committed to self-growth and putting a positive stamp back on society".
The judge, Recorder Michael Blakey, said the victim was "extremely vulnerable" and "wholly dependent" upon healthcare professionals and their support.
He told Brimage: "She trusted you as a person who would do your best to help her and certainly not steal anything from her."
Recorder Blakey said Brimage decided to help herself to the woman's money and bought products online, "virtually none of them goods you actually needed, some of them luxury items".
He said: "You accept by virtue of your guilty plea that what you did was wrong. It was in fact worse than that. It was a breach of trust, that lady's trust.
"It was a disgraceful way to behave as a healthcare professional."
The judge said he was told she carried out the theft when "at a low point in your life, because of a bad relationship".
He said: "That is very sad, but that can never be an excuse for what you did."
However, the judge said she was of previous good character, accepted she had let herself down "extremely badly", had strong personal mitigation and he believed there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.
Recorder Blakey said: "It seems to me counterproductive to send you immediately to custody."
The judge handed her a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, with a 15-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement and 80 hours of unpaid work.
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