A 'greedy' care home manager who stole thousands of pounds from vulnerable elderly residents was today ordered to hand back £10,000.
Sandra Tina Lupton abused her position, at Garden Lodge Care Home in Belle Vale , to steal from two men aged 80 and 76.
The heartless thief dipped into the pensions and benefits accounts of the two men, while she was entrusted with their Post Office and bank cards to handle paying their care fees.
However instead of fulfilling that duty, Lupton 'emptied' the men's accounts over around seven months in 2014 and 2015.
Receipts, which were part of a ruse to cover her tracks, included purchases for cigarettes and petrol despite the pensioner being neither a smoker nor a driver - while Lupton was both.
Another receipt revealed the purchase of a 32-inch television in December 2014 which Lupton had in fact bought as a Christmas present for her son.
Lupton even passed her victims’ Post Office bank cards to her staff and had them make cash withdrawals in ‘good faith’ for her, with the colleagues assuming she needed the money to pay fees.
The mum-of-three denied any wrongdoing when arrested and only pleaded guilty to two theft charges on the day her trial was due to begin last November.
A further 12 offences involving nine other residents, which she denied, were left to lie on the file.
Today Lupton, who was previously spared jail after being given an 18 month sentence suspended for two years , re-appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today for a Proceeds of Crime hearing.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how the mum had benefited from her criminality by a total of £14,535.
It was also agreed that she has realisable assets of £10,000 involving two thirds of the equity in her family home in Weston Court, Weston Road, Runcorn .
The judge, Recorder Richard Archer, who described Luton as “greedy” when he sentenced her, ordered her to hand over £10,000 within three months or face six months in prison.
The court heard that £6,000 is to be given to one victim and the rest to the estate of the other pensioner, as he has died since the offences occurred.
