AN ADMINISTRATOR at a home for the elderly has been jailed for two years after admitting helping in a plan to steal £1 million from her employers.

Evelyn Skelsey, 61, helped her former lover to break into properties to get bank details of Colin Townsend, the owner of the Broadstairs nursing home.

But the scheme ended when her co-conspirator John Vernege was arrested at a Ramsgate cafe - on the run from another armed robbery.

At his safe home in Dane Road, Margate, detectives found two imitation handguns, handcuffs, balaclavas, maps and details of Mr Townsend’s bank accounts, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

Vernege, who admitted charges of conspiracy to kidnap and burgle and a passport offence, is already serving a life sentence for armed robbery. He was jailed for a total of 12 years.

Jailing Skelsey, Judge Anthony Webb made reference to a letter she wrote to her ex-lover at the end of the affair in which she suggested they should remain friends, or failing that they should: "Finish our business venture as soon as possible then we need not have any further contact."

He said: "You were in this for money. That was the breach of trust that you committed and you were prepared to continue with your desire for money. This is a case in which a sentence of imprisonment is entirely appropriate."

Prosecutor Jonathan Higgs said that in October 2003, Mr Townsend and his wife sold St Michaels, one of the three nursing homes in Thanet they owned, for £1 million, which they banked.

The family retained two other homes in the area, the 70-resident Port Regis Nursing Home - where the administration centre was - and Dumpton Lane Lodge, which housed 16 people.

He said that in May 2000, the family hired Skelsey as the home’s administrator, having access to the day to day running of the business, including having access to the bank accounts and being one of two keyholders to the safe.

The court heard that in 2004, the Townsend family's home and their nursing homes were targetted by thieves, who escaped with £4,000 in cash, papers, documents as well as items belonging to the residents.

At the Townsend’s home, keys to the family’s cars were also stolen from a safe, together with banking documents relating to the £1 million deposit.

Mr Higgs added that although the raids on the nursing home indicated that the thieves had "inside" information, Skelsey wasn’t suspected and eventually retired from her post.

But in April 2004, armed officers - hunting a member of an armed robbery in Hereford - arrested Vernege at a cafe in Ramsgate.

In his possession were two mobile phones, one of which included numbers belonging to Skelsey, the court heard.

Police searched his safe house and discovered holdalls containing equipment which he planned to use in kidnapping one of the Townsend family before demanding a ransom.

Vernege claimed he had abandoned the attempt when Skelsey promised to obtain up-to-date information about the Townsend family's banking details, which had been changed after the burglaries.

Mr Mark Horton, for Vernege, said: "This case is about greed to obtain the proceeeds of the nursing home which was sold. The burglaries were solely to obtain documents relating to the banking codes."

Mr Oliver Saxby, for Skelsey, said that until she met Vernege she was an honest and hard-working woman and this offence was "completely out of character".