A care home manager who stole £57,000 from her residents will have to repay....just one pound!

Callous Teressa Luker, 54, siphoned cash meant to pay for the care of three vulnerable victims at Whitfield’s Ashgold House.

Now after a financial investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act, it was revealed that the thieving manager has no assets to pay back the money she is believed to have gambled and boozed away.

Judge Adele Williams ruled that Luker, of Grange Road, Saltwood should have to pay just a nominal £1..or serve another day in prison in default.

But she warned her: “Should you ever win the National Lottery or something similar...you may still have to pay back the full amount!”

Luker set up bank accounts in the name of each of the three patients and for two years used it on herself.

“I believe you deliberately targeted these people” - Judge Adele Williams

She claimed she couldn’t explain where the money had gone but admitted drinking heavily and playing fruit machines.

Canterbury Crown Court heard how when the fraud was discovered she tried to claim the money had been sent to a named person who worked for the owners of the Ashgold House.

Prosecutor James Gardiner told how in 2003 Luker had begun working for the residential home, which offers 24-hour care to five people with severe learning difficulties.

Four years later she was appointed manager and in 2008 the company changed the way in which benefits were paid to the residents.

Luker, who had admitted three frauds by breach of trust, took the opportunity to set up bank accounts for three residents but kept the details and the cards under lock and key in her office.

Mr Gardiner said that in October 2010 the company’s headquarters discovered that from February 2008 it had not received £40,000 in care costs.

He said after an investigation had begun Luker became evasive and avoided talking to management before “disappearing altogether”.

Eventually a boss broke into the file and discovered the secret accounts and the missing £57,178.56.

Mr Gardiner said that although £40,000 was Allied Care’s money, each of the residents had also lost between £4,000 and £6,700.

In April Judge Williams jailed her for two years telling her: “I believe you deliberately targeted these people”