A TRUSTED carer who swindled an elderly multiple sclerosis sufferer out of more than £21,000 has been spared an immediate jail sentence after a court heard she was her family’s “bedrock.”

Lorraine Furness, 51, ripped off bedridden Christine Noad over several years while acting as the pensioner’s “confidante and friend”, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Furness pleaded guilty part-way through her trial to 11 charges of fraud by false representation by writing 114 cheques drawn on her employer’s account, amounting to £21,617.

Prosecutor Nadim Bashir said that Mrs Noad, of Halifax Road, Liversedge, died in November last year aged 76. She had lived alone and, although mentally capable, she had relied on assistance.

Furness began working for Mrs Noad as a cleaner but became one of her carers.

Her dishonesty was unmasked when Mrs Noad’s husband, Edmund, who no longer lived with his wife but kept her well provided for, was told by the bank that one of her accounts was overdrawn. An investigation revealed numerous transactions to Furness by cheque, debit card and cash withdrawal.

She claimed Mrs Noad lent her the money but the pensioner insisted she only lent money to Furness once.

Furness, of Tichbourne Street, Liversedge, admitted all the charges after her trial had begun last month.

Mr Noad said in a victim impact statement that Furness’s dishonesty had a profound effect on his wife’s emotional state.

She had regarded her carer as her “right hand man”.

Ella Anderson, barrister for Furness, said Mrs Noad had loaned her money previously and she paid it back. She was the mother of three children and of previous good character.

Furness was a trained carer for her seriously disabled grand-daughter and the “bedrock” her family relied on.

“This is not a greedy, callous woman who has been funding a lavish lifestyle,” Miss Anderson said.

Judge David Hatton QC sentenced Furness to 18 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, with 240 hours of unpaid work and an activity requirement with the probation service. She must also obey a four-month curfew order.

He told her: “You cynically abused the trust that had been placed in you and systematically plundered her funds.” But Furness also had many good qualities and had done much good work, enabling him to suspend the sentence.