A CARER who stole hundreds of pounds from an 89-year-old man she was looking after has been spared prison.
Amanda Greenslade took £460 from Alex Shanks’s bank account after the trusting pensioner asked her to use his card to withdraw money for him.
When police were alerted to what had happened, callous Greenslade told them she stole the money simply “because she could”.
Yesterday, Mr Shanks said he was still in shock from the betrayal.
But Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov spared 47-year-old Greenslade jail because she has a young family to look after.
She was employed as a home carer with Moray Council at the time of the incidents August, but has since been sacked.
Greenslade, who lives in a plush new development in the south of Elgin, told the Press and Journal that she was not experiencing any money troubles at the time of the thefts.
She said she could only describe her behaviour as brief “moments of madness”.
Fiscal Ruaridh McAllister told Elgin Sheriff Court that Mr Shanks developed such a bond with Greenslade that he asked her to go to a grocery store near his home to withdraw £150 from an ATM using his bank card.
But, as well as using his details to get cash for Mr Shanks on Monday, August 17, she helped herself to £150 of his money.
The court heard that she then stole his bank card twice that week, and used it to take £150 and £160 from a cash machine at Elgin’s Asda store.
Mr Shanks was shocked when he saw a bank statement outlining recent withdrawals from his account, and when questioned, Greenslade immediately owned up.
The fiscal added: “Moray Council later informed the police, and when officers asked the accused why she had done this she said ‘because I could’.”
Greenslade, of 37 Thornhill Drive, Elgin, admitted using the “feloniously appropriated” card between August 17 and August 21 last year, at the town’s Pansport Road Co-op store and Asda supermarket.
She also admitted stealing the bank card from Mr Shanks on August 19.
Representing herself from the dock, Greenslade apologised for her actions.
She said: “I’m just so sorry and regretful for what I have done, and the distress I have caused the victim.”
Sheriff Pasportnikov said only Greenslade’s commitments as a mother had saved her from a custodial sentence.
The sheriff said: “Mr Shanks is a vulnerable person and you were in a position of trust over him.
“But I’ve read a report detailing your personal circumstances – and if you were to go to prison for this offence it would punish your children and family.
“It’s not fair to punish your family for something you have done.
“Your saving grace is that you have been very remorseful from the outset, and I’m not going to send you to prison.”
The sheriff instead ordered Greenslade to remain under supervision for six months, to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and to return the £460 to Mr Shanks.
Last night, Mr Shanks said he was looking to put the “sorry episode” behind him.
A close friend said the pensioner had been left badly shaken by the experience.
A Moray Council spokesman said: “Amanda Greenslade is no longer employed by the council and it would be inappropriate for us to comment on the court action.”
