A CARER employed to look after an elderly woman suffering from dementia helped himself to cash from her bank account, a court has heard.

A jury at Bolton Crown Court was told how 87-year-old Phylis Ward’s nephew became suspicious after finding a receipt for £100 from an ATM machine in her purse as she did not know how to use the cash dispenser.

Widow Mrs Ward told Martin Ward that her carer had got cash for her, but despite this there was not enough money in her purse to pay for the small amount of shopping her nephew had bought for her.

When checks were made with her Barclays bank it was found that, in addition to the £100 which had been withdrawn from the Nat West ATM machine on Market Street, Farnworth on August 1 2014, there was a second withdrawal a minute later for £400 and also £300 had been taken by the same method three days earlier.

When her carer, Jacob Cartwright’s Co-op bank account was examined it revealed he had paid £400 into it on August 4.

In a statement read out in court Mr Ward said he was “dumbfounded” when he learnt her carer had been handling her money.

Nicholas Clarke, prosecuting, told a jury how Mrs Ward had lived at a Stevenson Court sheltered flat in Kearsley with her husband William until his death in 2011.

Living alone, she was cared for by her nephews, Martin and Frank Ward, who would regularly check on her and do shopping for her.

When she started to become forgetful due to Alzheimer’s Disease the Home Care Support agency was engaged to help.

The jury was told that Cartwright, a 28-year-old senior support worker, was one of 12 different carers who would look after Mrs Ward in July and August 2014.

Cartwright, of Albert Road, Farnworth, admitted getting money for Mrs Ward from the machine after she asked him to, but claimed to police that he gave it all to her, even counting it out in front of her.

After Home Care Support learnt about the compliant against him he was sacked as the company has a policy of carers not dealing with clients’ money.

But when police arrived to arrest him at his home on September 8 2014 he told them: “Wow, I didn’t think it would come to this.”

The jury heard that Mrs Ward died in hospital on April 22 last year, but not before she could make a video statement, which was played in court.

Cartwright denies two counts of theft.

The trial continues.