A Dundee carer has been struck off after taking a pensioner’s bank card and helping herself to £200.
Janice Murphy admitted taking the money from William Allan when she was supposed to be looking after him.
Murphy was ordered to carry out 40 hours of unpaid work in the community when she admitted the offence at Dundee Sheriff Court last year.
She admitted she had stolen Mr Allan’s bank card from sheltered housing on Bonnethill Gardens in Dundee on May 18 2021.
She also admitted stealing £200 from a cash machine at Spar in the Hilltown.
Carer ‘showed disregard for the law’
A report from watchdog the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) said that the elderly man faced “financial harm” following the incident.
The SSSC – which is based in Dundee – also said that Murphy’s conviction showed a “disregard for the law”, and raised concerns about her “suitability to work with vulnerable people”.
The watchdog added: “Taking a bank card from a service user’s home and using this to take money from their bank account without their consent was dishonest and an abuse of your position.
“This misappropriation of money represented a gross breach of the trust and confidence placed in you by the service user, their family, your previous employer and the public.”
The SSSC said there had been no previous concerns about Murphy’s conduct before the incident.
But it added that her behaviour had “risked bringing the reputation of the social services profession into disrepute”.
A removal order was considered to be the most appropriate action by the watchdog.
It said: “It is both necessary and justified in the public interest and to maintain the
continuing trust and confidence in the social service profession and the SSSC as the regulator of the profession.”
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