A thieving carer has been jailed for 12 months for taking £4,200 from the 90-year-old dementia sufferer she was supposed to be looking after.

Vicky Marks called Joan Goucher mum and would always be cuddling and kissing her when she looked after her on Mondays and Thursdays at her house in Tamworth Road, Croydon.

Her job was to provide companionship for Mrs Goucher but during her visits she would take the elderly woman's bank card and go to the cashpoint where she would withdraw £100 or £200 at a time.

She even took money from the account when Mrs Goucher was ill in hospital.

Before Marks was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court today (March 27), part of Mrs Goucher’s victim impact statement was read out in court.

It read: “It’s disgusting that Vicky did this to me.

“It worries me that she could have done this to somebody else.

“I have had my locks changed as a result and I’m afraid in case she comes back and does this to me again.

“I know Vicky does not have a mum but that’s no reason to do what she did.

“I’m heartbroken and I won’t be able to forget this.

“It’s disgusting.”

Marks, of Station Approach, Coulsdon, had initially denied taking the money, over the period of October 31, 2013, to July 17 last year.

She eventually pleaded guilty to one count of fraud at a hearing at Croydon Crown Court last month but Recorder Silas Reid said she had not shown any remorse.

In mitigation for the 59-year-old, Christopher Maynard said she had a difficult childhood and was found abandoned by her mother at eight days old.

He said she was beaten by her foster mother until she was nine years old when she was placed in a care home until she was 17.

Mr Maynard said she suffers from major depression, with severe anxiety and psychotic features, and that prison would not be a place where she could get the necessary treatment.

Disagreeing, Recorder Reid said: “It’s unclear to me why you did that to someone of that age.

“Almost every time you went you would take some money.

“Time and time again you went to the bank with her card and you took money out.

“[You were taken] into her family and bought a television to say thanks.

“You took money when she was in hospital when you went ‘to care for her’.

“It’s had a seriously detrimental effect on her.

“She’s particularly vulnerable, even for someone in their 90s.”

He added: “There’s no evidence of remorse.

“If you feel it I have seen no evidence of it.

“There must be punishment in a sentence and there must be deterrent for others.

“If other people are tempted they must realise what the consequences are.

“This offence is so serious that only a custodial sentence could be justified.”

Speaking on behalf of the family outside court, Mrs Goucher’s daughter Caroline Baldwin said they were elated that Marks has been jailed.

They had known Marks for about three years before she started helping them care for the grandmother-of-eight, after meeting her at bingo.

Mrs Baldwin said: “We were really angry initially but as the months have gone on I have calmed down.

“I’m pleased that she got the sentence now.

“The thing that has really angered me is that she went the mental health route [in her mitigation], that’s what’s made me really angry.

“She knew what she was doing and if he had given her a suspended sentence she would have done it tomorrow.

“But we are not going to let her get away with it.

The 70-year-old, from Forestdale, added: “I never thought she would go down.

“I’m totally shocked but not sorry.”

As well as the prison sentence, Marks must pay a £100 victim surcharge.

The court heard Marks had been sent a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions about repaying benefits she had been incorrectly paid, of about £3,900, in 2013.

It is not known whether she was using the money she was taking from Mrs Goucher to repay this debt.