A deceitful sheltered housing warden who duped a partially-blind 89-year-old woman resident out of more than £3,000 has been jailed.

Patricia Ann Wrightson, 52, of Kingsway West, Acomb, forged retired maid Emma Foster's signatures on cheques taken from her cheque book and made a £3,000 investment in a building society, bought a double bed and paid her water rates and television licence.

At Doncaster Crown Court Judge Trevor Barber told Wrightson, former live-in warden at the English Church Housing-run De La Falle House in Fulford Road, York: "Your behaviour was not only criminal but quite disgraceful and it was a huge breach of trust. There is no way I can deal with that sort of behaviour other than to deprive you of your liberty."

He sentenced Wrightson to six months concurrent on each of five counts of obtaining a total of £3,454.39 by deception.

Wrightson denied the offences but was convicted at York Crown Court at the end of February.

She claimed most of the cash was a gift and said she wrote the cheques with Mrs Foster's consent to help her, but had not signed them.

She alleged the pair were close friends and said Mrs Foster gave her a £3,000 gift cheque to invest after Wrightson had told her of previous building society windfalls.

Her barrister, Anne Munday, urged Judge Barber not to jail her. Wrightson had lost her job and her accommodation and her partner of two years felt he could not support her. She also suffered from depression.

Wrightson was a churchgoer and had found it shocking to face up to what she had done.

The offences came to light in 1998 when Mrs Foster's son, David, was called in to look after her affairs. Ill-health put his mother in York District Hospital at the end of 1997 and she was later moved to a residential home in Cumbria where she now lives.

Yesterday David said: "My mother was furious with herself that she'd been conned.

"We hope that this sentence will discourage others from being tempted to the same evil path that Wrightson chose."

Wrightson handed in a cheque for £454.39 to be returned to Mrs Foster. The £3,000 paid to the building society will also be transferred to the family.

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