A DEBT-RIDDEN carer who used a vulnerable man's money to try to sort out her own finances has been given a suspended prison sentence for fraud.

Lucy Webb, 31, had been employed by the Turning Point organisation for ten years and had worked her way up to the position of trusted team leader before she began taking cash from a client's accounts.

Prosecutor Peter Byrne told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that Webb's victim needed 24-hour care and his mental capacity meant he was not able to manage his own finances.

The court heard that Webb, of Peel Park Terrace, Undercliffe, Bradford, got into difficulties after her own home was burgled and her barrister Shufqat Khan said the defendant and her partner had been "playing catch-up" with their finances since then.

"The difficulties have just compounded themselves so that at the time of these offences there were outstanding bills to utility providers," said Mr Khan.

"It is not a case of someone going out and spending on anything lavish."

Webb, who had no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position on the basis that £1,730 was unaccounted for although Mr Khan submitted that his client had used some of that money to buy items for the complainant.

Webb took the money between January 2014 and July last year and during a police interview she initially blamed the lack of receipts and documentary records on her being "complacent and lazy".

When it was suggested that she had stolen the money she replied: "I wouldn't do that. I'm not like that."

Mr Khan said his client had worked her way up from stacking shelves to holding the post of team leader.

He said she was trusted by all and highly-thought of and she had now thrown all that away.

The court heard that Webb had lost her job as a carer and was now back stacking shelves in a supermarket.

Judge Colin Burn said he was prepared to suspend Webb's 12-month prison sentence for two years, but he also imposed an order for her to do 240 hours unpaid work for the community as a direct alternative to an immediate jail term.

Webb will also have to pay compensation of £1,730 to her victim within the next year.

The judge told her that the offending was mean and she had effectively been pushing her financial difficulties on to the complainant.