A Cotswold care home worker who 'ruthlessly and persistently' defrauded a vulnerable 92-year-old widow out of more than £43,000 has been jailed for four and a half years.

Suzanne Rafferty was working as activities co-ordinator at Jubilee Lodge in Bourton-on-the-Water, when she met resident Joyce Mann, who had Alzheimer's and was receiving respite care, Gloucester Crown Court was told last week.

She 'forged a close relationship with Mrs Mann' and proceeded to plunder her bank account, using her debit card to make daily cash withdrawals as well as buying goods from High Street shops, the jury heard.

Rafferty even had the locks changed on Mrs Mann's house in Churchdown, near Gloucester, to keep others out, the prosecution said.

Rafferty, 59, of Mount View Drive, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, denied two charges of fraud, one of abuse of position and fraudulent use of the bank card and one offence of theft between March and May 2019 and claimed she was trying to protect Mrs Mann against family members who were taking advantage of her; but the jury found her guilty of all charges by majority verdicts.

Judge Ian Lawrie QC told her: "You purposely gained and won the confidence of this emotionally and mentally vulnerable and isolated elderly woman.

"You ruthlessly and persistently exploited that trust and vulnerability to gain access to, and take control of, Mrs Mann's considerable finances and by doing so gain money totalling £43,904 and other goods.

"In the process of exploiting the vulnerability of Mrs Mann you purposely chose to breach all protective safeguarding provisions in respect of a patient who was, whilst in your company, in your care.

"By training and experience, you would have been alert and aware of safeguarding requirements in your role.

"You clearly chose to circumvent those protective requirements for reasons of greed. It was clear from the bank statements that over the course of time you deliberately and repeatedly stole money from Mrs Mann's bank account.

"To compound your dishonesty during the trial your defence pivoted around a completely groundless set of accusations against other members of Mrs Mann's family."

Prosecutor Rhianna Fricker told the jury at the start of the trial that Mrs Mann was 91 when, in December 2018, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

At that time Mrs Mann's husband David was still alive and they lived together in Churchdown, but after suffering a fall at home, she was placed in Jubilee Lodge for respite care.

The jury was told that Mrs Mann's husband died during this period and assessments were carried out to see if she needed help when she went home.

Rafferty was employed at Jubilee Lodge from January 2018, initially as a house keeper with cleaning duties. She later became an activities co-ordinator and was responsible for keeping residents occupied and entertained. She sometimes also took residents for outings, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor, Ms Fricker said: She was not a carer and was not entitled to look after the resident's physical wellbeing and nor was she allowed to have any involvement in their financial affairs."

"Our case is that while Mrs Mann was living at Jubilee Lodge, Rafferty abused her position and took advantage of her.

"She would have been aware Mrs Mann had dementia and was prone to forgetfulness and she chose to exploit this knowing she was vulnerable. She forged a close relationship with her in order to gain access to her money and property.

"On March 5, 2019, Rafferty was responsible for taking Mrs Mann to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, where she had left £575 in cash after being a patient in January that year.

"They returned to Jubilee Lodge at 3.30pm. Mrs Mann's bank card was used 37 minutes later and £250 was withdrawn. Mrs Mann did not withdraw that cash.

"From then onwards numerous withdrawals were made at £250 each time. Sometimes this would occur twice a day."

Rafferty also used the card to purchase items from shops including Dunelm, Curries, Homebase and Sainsburys, Ms Fricker added.

"She also transferred money to a Thomas Cook cash card, a preloaded card that at one time had a balance of £4,382 - funds that had mostly been obtained from Mrs Mann's bank account.

"Rafferty was also seen visiting Mrs Mann's home address and is alleged to have removed items from the property. Over a period of two to three weeks Rafferty was seen by a neighbour on four occasions without Mrs Mann being present and spent about 10 minutes inside the house before leaving."

The defendant hired a van on several occasion to visit Mrs Mann's house and was once accompanied by two men who were inside the property with her for half an hour.

"A neighbour who saw this became concerned about the situation and contacted Mr Mann's sister-in-law and alerted her.

"On May 20, 2019, two social care assessors looking after Mrs Mann went to her home to see how she behaved in a familiar environment. When they arrived they found that the keys to her home, which had been kept in the safe at Jubilee Lodge, would not work as the locks had been changed.

"The Crown's case is that Rafferty had changed the locks and hadn't given the care home a set of keys."

It was at that stage that the police were called, the prosecutor said.

Rafferty was arrested the following day and was in possession of a large number of Mrs Mann's documents, including financial papers along with the pensioner's purse and bank cards and a typed letter stating what Mrs Mann wanted to be done with her home should anything happen to her.

Ms Fricker said: "In one of the defendant's bedrooms a black and white vanity case was discovered and inside it were envelopes containing a large amount of cash in both Euros and Sterling, along with a number of receipts showing cash withdrawals."

"In total £16,800 and €6,750 was found. Following Rafferty's arrest there was no more unexplained activity on Mrs Mann's bank accounts.

"Rafferty abused her of position in the care home by not safeguarding Mrs Mann. She forged a relationship with her and involved herself in her personal and financial affairs and changed her documentation in the care home and changed the locks to her home. She did this to control Mrs Mann's finances for her own gain."

Charlotte Surley, for Rafferty, said her client maintained she had not acted dishonestly at any point during her dealings with Mrs Mann.

"She was trying to protect Mrs Mann financial interests at all times and Mrs Mann had consented for her to do this." said Ms Surley.

"When she and Mrs Mann went to the property on the day of her husband's funeral, they discovered that a number of items had been removed from the home.

"My client asserts that Mrs Mann was suspicious of other family members coming in and helping themselves. She also became suspicious over the disappearance of Mr Mann's will.

"Mrs Mann tried to get help from social services, but when this was not forthcoming, they formed an 'escape plan' for Mrs Mann to leave Jubilee Lodge and to live back at her own home.

"Part of this was a scheme to withdraw money from Mrs Mann's bank account and put the money into the house to use as 'bait'. She put the money onto the Thomas Cook bank card to cover any funds owning to Jubilee Lodge when Mrs Mann moved out and back into her home address.

"Her course of conduct could be assessed as ill advised to protect Mrs Mann's interests, but at no time was it dishonest."

Samantha Harris, a community dementia education facilitator, have evidence that Mrs Mann suffered from delirium and was 'often muddled.'

"She had a lot of cognitive difficulties and became unable to work out how to use the washing machine. She deferred decision making to her husband. She lacked the capacity to do much for herself."

Rafferty told the court that she had taken the documentation home with her as 'everything was in Mrs Mann's husband's name' and was trying to sort things out for her.

She added that when she left her employment at the care home on April 24, 2020, she had been in contact with Mrs Mann numerous times as they were planning to set a trap to establish who was taking property from the house.

The jury took five hours and 12 minutes to reach their majority guilty verdicts.

Jailing her, the judge said "You didn't help yourself when you gave evidence. It was clear to me that you were lying."

The judge made a restitution order returning all the money found in Rafferty's possession to the victim.