An Aberdeen carer has been struck off after stealing cash from an elderly woman while she slept.
Support worker Mandy Masson was convicted of two charges of theft following an Aberdeen Sheriff Court hearing in December last year.
Masson stole envelopes of cash – containing £39 to pay the cleaners – from the woman’s sheltered housing flat at Janesfield Manor in Aberdeen.
On the first occasion on November 1, 2022, the carer of six years “rummaged” through the pensioner’s things and took the cash while she was in hospital.
The second time on November 6, Masson again took the envelope while the woman was asleep.
However, the support worker was caught by the elderly woman’s son who has installed a camera in the flat to keep an eye on his mum’s welfare.
Masson pleaded guilty to the two charges of theft and apologised through her solicitor.
Now the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) has struck off Masson following their own disciplinary hearings.
‘You present an ongoing and continuing risk’ to the public
The SSSC ruled her fitness to practise had been impaired, adding that her conduct and conviction demonstrates a “serious abuse” of her position.
Although it was noted she had demonstrated “some insight, regret and remorse” and had a previously “unblemished” six-year record, it was concluded Masson was at a high risk of re-offending.
The decision notice added: “The behaviour leading to your conviction seriously compromises your professional values and the service user’s ability, and that of their family, to place their trust and reliance in you as a support worker, and the wider social services profession
“Your behaviour, if repeated, would place vulnerable service users at significant risk of financial and emotional harm.
“The behaviour leading to your conviction, and the values concerns arising from it, are very serious.
“The risk of similar behaviour being repeated is high. You present an ongoing and continuing risk to members of the public.
“Your actions were dishonest and a serious abuse of trust.
“Failure to take action to reaffirm the expected professional standards in this case would undermine the integrity of the SSSC’s register and damage public trust and confidence in the social services profession.”
