A care assistant who stole hundreds from the elderly people she cared for has been jailed.

Susan Browne, 43, was caught during a police sting after staff became suspicious about money going missing from residents at the Dorothy Lucy Centre in Maidstone.

Marked notes were planted in the wallet of a patient at the centre, in Northumberland Road, and night shift carer Browne took it.

She was arrested by police when she left the next morning. After initially denying the theft, she later admitted it when police proved she had touched the notes because she had yellow marks on her fingers from them.

Browne, a mother of one, then admitted she had been stealing from patients, some of whom were in their 90s, during the four years she had worked there.

She was charged with two counts of cash and one count of stealing groceries from the home and had at least seven other similar offences taking into consideration when she appeared at Maidstone Magistrates Court this week.

The bench heard how she had targeted vulnerable residents many of whom suffered from dementia.

Browne, of Dover Street, Maidstone, took small amounts of cash from her patients, two of whom were 95 and 92.

One resident had £50 stolen from her purse and in all Browne stole more than £250 from the patients over the years.

The police sting also included marking the groceries, which the court heard were found in the boot of her car.

As a result of the thefts, Browne lost her job at the centre.

She could be seen sobbing while she was sentenced and told magistrates she took the money as she had fallen on hard times.

She added: “I know I did wrong, I can’t add any more.

“My daughter will get her heart ripped out, the poor little soul.”

Browne was jailed for 84 days for the thefts.

Chairman of the bench, Tina Richards, said: “Only a custodial sentence can be justified her as the offences are so serious.

“We have to consider the vunerable nature of the victims and how long you carried out the thefts and the breach of trust that also happened.”