Care assistant Kerry Haddow was behind bars today after she duped an 88-year-old woman out of £9,000.

Haddow, 19, was told by a judge that she "lied, lied and lied" after stealing the money from the woman who lived at Catherine Miller residential home in Old Leigh Road, Leigh.

The home, which has since come under the new ownership of Anne and Andrew Stern, today said it was sad to hear of events which took place three months before the couple took over.

It stressed that more stringent staff vetting procedures and tighter in-house controls had been put in place.

The teenager, who had a previously blameless character, was sent to a young offenders' institution for nine months.

She pleaded guilty at Basildon Crown Court to theft and obtaining a money transfer by deception from elderly Ivy Howell.

Prosecutor Robert Flach said blonde-haired Haddow became friendly with Ivy until the time came when she needed money.

Then Haddow ripped out a middle page and stub from Ivy's cheque book, signed it in the pensioner's name and transferred the £9,000 into her own account.

Mr Flach added that the offence came to light when the bank noticed Ivy's account was overdrawn by more than £7,000.

Haddow claimed she tried to get Ivy to say the money was a loan but the elderly woman told her daughter what had happened. Later Haddow, who now lives in the Lake District, confessed: "I have done a terrible thing -- more terrible than cancer."

She said she told her boyfriend she had inherited £25,000 and they went on holiday to Tobago in the Caribbean. Haddow also obtained a mortgage with him. The money was eventually repaid to the victim, said Mr Flach.

Judge Francis Petre told Haddow: "You have lied, lied and lied -- you lied to your boyfriend, you lied to the old lady. You lied so much that the entire residential home was under suspicion."

Mr and Mrs Stern, the new owners of the home, stressed they had no connection to the home's former owners or any responsibility for previous events.

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