A 23-year old live-in carer stole more than £16,000 in cash and personal possessions from an elderly Cotswolds couple within just eight days of starting work for them, a court heard on Thursday (June 24).

Romanian national Florin Lacatus moved into the home of Douglas and Anna Scott at Evenlode, near Moreton in Marsh, on a two week on/two weeks off basis in July 2019 and began stealing almost immediately, Gloucester crown court was told.

Lacatus had been employed by Bright Dawn Home Care, based in Solihull, to provide 24 hour care for Mr Scott after he suffered a severe stroke which left him paralysed down the left side of his body and dramatically reduced his ability to communicate, said the prosecutor.

"Lacatus started work for the couple on July 29, 2019. However four days later Josephine Scott, the daughter of Douglas and Anna, received a call from Nat West Bank saying that suspicious activity had been detected on her parents' joint bank account." she said.

"Josephine then requested that the card be stopped because she believed some cyber crime activity was being conducted on the account.

"The same day a representative of Bright Dawn Home Care contacted the couple's daughter stating that Lacatus' mother had been involved in an accident in Germany and she needed her son to be with her as soon as possible. Lacatus left the next day and was taken to the airport.

"On Sunday, August 4, Josephine noticed that her father's mobile phone and external speaker had gone missing along with a wallet containing bank cards, items of jewellery and three blank cheques.

"The police were called the next day and while the couple's son Robert was talking to the officers he received an email from the bank highlighting transactions that had been made on the account that couldn't have been made by his parents.

"Between July 29 and August 6, 2019, there were 50 fraudulent transactions on both the elderly couple's Barclays and Nat West accounts along with two separate HSBC accounts totalling £4,228.28.

"On July 30 there were two fraudulent transactions on the Nat West account payable to Sovereign Housing Association, Lacatus' landlords in Reading, totalling £2,300.

"Lacatus managed to successfully cash two cheques totalling £6,750 and one that was stopped for £3,000.

"When Lacatus was arrested at his home address in Reading on August 7, he was found with the stolen wallet and bank cards in the name of Mr Scott. Also found was Mrs Scott's pearl necklace with a ruby clasp and other items that had been stolen.

"Lacatus also had a number of receipts from cash exchange stores for a number of items which he had sold."

The court was told that Lacatus was released while under police investigation and ordered to attend Reading Police Station twice a week.

It was later discovered when he failed to report to police that Lacatus had emptied his bank account and left the country on August 11, 2019.

He was finally arrested again by police on February 4, 2020 in relation to similar matters committed in Dorset and Hertfordshire.

The court heard that he had been convicted for the theft of a cheque on July 19, 2019, just before he arrived to work for the Scotts, for which he received a 12 week prison sentence from Dorset magistrates.

This was followed by a 15 month prison sentence passed at St Albans Crown Court for using a bank card belonging to another vulnerable victim in Hertfordshire.

In a victim statement Anna Scott said: "I felt completely shocked that a carer, a trusted person from the agency, would steal from us. I felt completely puzzled by this.

"I was horrified that Lacatus entered my bedroom, which he was not entitled to do, and invaded my privacy. He went through my belongings.

"I am a trusting person and still have carers for my husband Douglas. I found it shocking that he came to our home and did what he did. Some of the items stolen were of great sentimental value to me. It was a lifetime of jewellery and the memories that went with each item.

"My husband summed up everything that has gone on in a single word, 'horrible'. I want Lacatus stopped so he cannot target any more vulnerable people."

The court was told that Lacatus, currently an inmate at Winchester Prison, but formally from Reading, initially pleaded not guilty to the charges that between 28th July and 4th August 2019 he stole items including bank cards, cufflinks, medicine and a tie pin from Mr Scott and a pearl necklace, gold necklace and gold watch from Mrs Scott.

Lacatus also denied that between 29th July and 8th August 2019 he committed fraud in that while employed as a carer and abused his position to make a gain for himself of £16,528.28.

Lacatus cited that identification was an issue and claimed the person arrested by police was not him.

The court also heard that police subsequently carried out an additional investigation and confirmed that the man arrested was that of Lacatus who had no choice but to change his plea at the crown court on May 25 this year.

Philip Sutton, defending said: "When Lacatus appeared at St Albans Crown Court that case and this one should have been linked so as he could be sentenced for the two offences together.

"Lacatus' mother has since been diagnosed with life-limiting cancer and if he receives a prison sentence today he is unlikely to see her ever again."

The judge, Recorder Malcolm Gibney told Lacatus: "You sought to delay proceedings by claiming that identity was an issue. None of what you stated was true and the subsequent police investigation prolonged the court process.

"Your role in all this was high because this was a deliberate abuse of trust in which your targeted vulnerable victims for your financial gain.

"Whether you cared for the people you were looking after or not, we shall never know as the modus operandi for all three offences was the same in that you abused your position of trust."

The judge sentenced Lacatus to three years in prison.

Lacatus was warned that Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation proceedings had been initiated against him and a court hearing would be held in November this year.