A CARER from Rhyl has been struck off after she spent money belonging to a resident at the home she worked at on herself.

Karen Sargent was handed a removal order by Social Care Wales’ fitness to practise committee following a two-day hearing on June 27 and 28.

Ms Sargent, who was employed as a support worker by Alliance Care Homes from June 2022 to March 2023, was not presented or represented at the hearing.

The hearing was shown a series of withdrawals from the resident’s bank statement, as well as various admissions made by Ms Sargent in a recorded meeting on March 1, 2023.

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During this meeting, she said: “Yes, I did take £300 from his bank and only gave him £200.

“I’ve taken money from him for petrol and fags; this is because he tells me to, as I help him, and he’s very insistent that I take the money.

“He said it was our secret and it’s his money, and he can do what he likes with it. Yes, I took the money, but he had always told me I could to get fags, as I help him out.

“I know we aren’t allowed to take gifts, but he was insistent on me having it.”

The resident who Ms Sargent took the money from was said to have mental and physical disabilities, but still able to manage his own finances.

Ms Sargent’s actions, the panel chairing the hearing said, were “entirely inappropriate”, while she was found to have shown a “lack of integrity” and no “insight or remorse”.

A witness statement added: “From my conversations with the care user, this experience has had a negative effect on him.

“He has advised me that he feels untrusting of others, upset that Karen Sargent had taken his money, and let down by the care service.

“The care user has expressed to me his wish that Karen Sargent was removed from and prevented from working in that environment again, so that what happened to him would not happen to anyone else.”

The panel said: “We have found that Ms Sargent took money from a vulnerable individual whom she was paid to support.

“She was already receiving a wage for helping him and there was no acceptable basis for her receipt of money from him.

“On her own admission, she took money on a number of occasions and the sums in question were significant.

“Her conduct was not isolated and was not transparent. She did not disclose this activity to her employer and made no recording of the transactions in breach of her employer’s policy and professional expectations.

“Removal from the register is the necessary and proportionate outcome.”