Portaferry care worker stole from disabled man

Portaferry care worker stole from disabled man

1 October 2014

A PORTAFERRY woman who stole from a blind, disabled and elderly man who she cared for has escaped jail.

Twenty seven year-old Cushla Byers, of Kearney Road, was sentenced to community service when she appeared at Newtownards Court yesterday.

Byers, a care assistant, had been a carer for a man who required 24-hour care. 

He told his family that money had gone missing from a drawer leading them to install a small CCTV camera which caught Byers taking money.

A prosecution lawyer said that, when the footage was viewed “periodically”, they spotted Byers taking the money which was used for things like “day-to-day groceries”.

A total of £40 was said to be “unaccounted for”, according to the lawyer.

Byers voluntarily attended a police interview and admitted taking the cash, later pleading guilty to a single count of theft on dates between March 1 and May 1 this year.

Defence barrister Connor Holmes said the money had already been paid back and that Byers, who was experiencing money problems at the time, had “made herself effectively unemployable”.

He added that she is “properly ashamed of herself”.

District Judge Mark Hamill told her that she “richly, richly deserved” to go to jail, but handed her 120 hours of community service instead.

He added: “Essentially the punishment for you is the destruction of your reputation.”

“When someone steals from a blind, disabled, elderly and vulnerable victim when they’re in a position of care ... They put themselves, in effect, in the public dock, in the stocks, and their reputation is all the more trashed.

Judge Hamill told Byers he was imposing the Community Service Order “as a direct alternative” to a jail sentence.