Care home worker pleads guilty to theft of cash from 'vulnerable victim'
A care home worker who stole £80 in cash from a resident's bedroom has been ordered to do 120 hours of community service which a judge said was a "direct alternative to imprisonment".
Nikola Drozd (20), of Roemill Road in Limavady, had been working at a residential home in the Rasharkin area, Ballymena Magistrates' Court was told, when she took the money from a woman's purse on June 10 last year.
She pleaded guilty to theft. A defence barrister said the defendant was taking a "pragmatic" approach to the charge after Drozd had initially claimed she had no intention to steal the money but instead had put it in a kitchen cabinet for "safe keeping".
The money was missing for "a couple of days" and when discovered was returned to the resident.
The court heard the defendant said she had taken the money ‘to protect the victim’ and had "put a sticker on it and then forgot about it".
The defendant who had a previously clear record is unemployed but hopes to start a paramedic course at university, the court was told.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said it had been a "breach of trust" and the defendant had been sacked.
He said she had abused a position of trust with a "vulnerable victim" who was in a "supported living arrangement".