NHS worker swiped dementia patient's bank card and stole £5,000 as she lay in hospital bed

A callous hospital worker took a bank card from a frail pensioner who was suffering from dementia - and stole more than £5000 from her account.

Senga Reid snatched the debit card from the 78-year-old patient as she lay helpless in a bed at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh last year.

Reid, 52, then used the stolen card and the PIN number to take a total of £5854.55 from several bank machines throughout Edinburgh over a four week period last year.

The despicable theft was uncovered after the victim's family noticed the bank card was missing and hospital management launched an internal investigation.

Reid - who was employed as a clinical support worker at the hospital - pleaded guilty to two theft offences when she appeared in the dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

Prosecutors accepted not guilty pleas to six charges of using the card to buy goods from stores in the capital including Mulberry, Cruise, Marks and Spencer, TK Maxx and Argos.

Fiscal depute Bruce McCrossan said: "Charge one and two occurred when the accused was working as a clinical support worker at the Western General Hospital and had been for doing that for the past 12 years.

"The woman named in charge one was 78-years-old and was suffering from dementia and had been admitted to hospital for the month of November [last year].

"It was when she was being visited on November 22 when family members noted her bank card wasn't there. That prompted an investigation and it was discovered what is labled in charge one had happened."

The fiscal told the court there had been no recovery of any of the cash stolen from the pensioner's bank account.

Solicitor Calum Turner, defending, said he would reserve all mitigation to the sentencing hearing.

Sheriff John Cook deferred sentence on Reid, of Stockbridge, Edinburgh, to next month for social work reports and a restriction of liberty order assessment to be prepared.

Reid pleaded guilty a charge of having found the bank card and PIN number belonging to a 78-year-old patient did appropriate the card for her own use and stole the card at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, on November 22, 2023.

She also admitted to using the bank card at various bank machines in Edinburgh and stealing £5854.55 between November 22 and December 21, 2023.

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