Carer who stole £31k from elderly Surrey woman jailed
- Published
Monica Watson showed no signs of remorse, Surrey Police said
A carer has been jailed for three years for stealing more than £31,000 from an elderly woman she was looking after.
Monica Watson, of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court after being found guilty of fraud on 4 October.
The money was spent on clothes, tennis lessons and holidays in Portugal and the UK, Surrey Police said.
She used her 85-year-old victim's credit and debit cards and set up new accounts without her permission.
Watson was arrested in June 2016 after the victim's family noticed unusual transaction on their mother's account and large sums of money being withdrawn on a regular basis.
'So foolish'
Det Sgt Ben Kirby said: "This was a calculated and cold crime committed with no sense of remorse, and done to fund a lifestyle Ms Watson thought she deserved though did not have the income to lead.
"Watson is a callous individual who continues to lie and deceive and appears to have no intention of changing her ways. In 2010 she spent eight months in prison for a similar offence of theft."
The victim's family said their mother had been "really rocked" by the experience.
They added: "She keeps asking 'how could I have been so foolish to believe her'."