A female carer stole from her grandmother to tax her car, shop at Argos and buy a new vacuum cleaner, a court heard.

Professional care worker Nyree Fenton not only stole from her Goole grandmother, Grace Allerton, aged 86, but also swindled £100 from an 80-year-old Pocklington woman for whom she shopped.

Sentencing Fenton, 45, at Hull Crown Court, Recorder Robert Hill said the aggravating feature of her crimes was that both the victims were elderly.

He said: "In respect of both of these women you were in a position of trust and you cannot escape that."

He said she abused her position of caring for them to steal £609 from her grandmother and altered a £50 cheque from Mrs Noble, of Pocklington, to £150.

Fenton, of Glebe Avenue, Full Sutton, near York, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft from her grandmother at Snaith and one of obtaining property by deception and asked for 18 further offences to be considered. She was ordered to complete an 18-month community rehabilitation order and pay £100 compensation to Mrs Noble and £609 to HSBC bank for Mrs Allerton.

Crown prosecutor Tony Knight said Mrs Allerton spotted the losses when she received a bank statement in December 2000 and there were a number of transactions she knew nothing about.

"There were 16 transactions totalling £446 for Argus, Asda and a variety of other stores," said Mr Knight. "She went through the cheque book and counterfoils were missing."

He said Fenton had used the cheque to pay a telephone bill, tax her car and buy a vacuum cleaner. He said when she was first interviewed by police Fenton said her grandmother had given her the cheques. She said she could not understand why she changed Mrs Noble's cheque from £50 to £150.

Diane Campbell, for Fenton, said Fenton's mental health was at crisis point at the time of the thefts, but she did not want that to excuse her behaviour.

She said her former partner had committed suicide eight years before and Fenton had difficulty coping with feelings of remorse and guilt and was still coming to terms with the loss.

"Mrs Fenton knows that her own family will not be able to forgive her," said Miss Campbell. "She has not been able to tell her partner about the offences. The author of her pre-sentence report is of the view she is on the verge of a mental and physical breakdown."

Updated: 10:33 Wednesday, May 30, 2001