Callous couple stole elderly man’s life savings for spending spree

Samantha Hughes took the 76-year-old’s card from his flat at the residential home where she had worked for years as a trusted care assistant before going on a three-day spree with her boyfriend Steven Reid.

By the time the victim, a retired car factory worker who suffers with chronic arthritis, reported his card missing, the couple had left him with just £4.71 in his account.

Officers who investigated the crime said Hughes, 30, and Reid, 42, both of Kingstanding, Birmingham, had been driven by pure greed with no thought for their actions.

Hughes found the card and its Pin number under a cushion in the man’s flat at the residential home in the city, where he kept it for “safe-keeping”, according to police. However, instead of giving it back to him she used it to withdraw £1,100 cash, with the pair also using it to buy other goods including £241 of car parts and vitamin pills in January.

Hughes and Reid were caught after officers studied CCTV from the stores and ATMs where the card had been used, and later found their new TV unopened in its packaging at Reid’s home and incriminating clothing receipts at Hughes’ house.

Reid admitted his guilt early on but claimed to have found the card in the care home’s car park, telling officers he tried to “chance his luck” by seeing if the card worked.

Hughes, who initially denied involvement, pleaded guilty to theft at Birmingham Crown Court at a hearing in August and yesterday both were sentenced at that court to 10 months each behind bars.