Carer stole jewels from OAP, 97 (From Daily Echo)

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Carer stole jewels from OAP, 97

2:30pm Thursday 19th January 2012 in New Forest Photograph of the Author By Sian Davies, Senior News Reporter

JAILED: Tara Rolfe.

SHE was the most vulnerable of victims, unable to care for herself.

Having suffered a stroke, 97- year-old Louisa Wood was wheelchair bound and relied on regular visits from trusted carer Tara Rolfe to help her with the most basic tasks.

But the very woman who was supposed to be looking after her instead stole precious jewellery worth thousands of pounds.

Southampton Crown Court heard how Mrs Wood first became suspicious of Rolfe when she caught her in one of the bedrooms of her Hampshire home, apparently going through drawers.

She was one of a number of carers from the Southampton-based Helping Hands care agency who visited her up to three times a day.

Prosecutor Eleanor Fargin told the court how Mrs Wood told her daughter Patricia Piper of her concerns as she had put jewellery away in the room, placing it in envelopes to pass onto members of her family when she died.

When Mrs Piper looked for the envelopes in the Fordingbridge home she found that they had been opened and the jewellery removed, the court heard.

The family put the cost at £6,774 worth of jewellery taken, including the wedding and engagement rings given to Mrs Wood, a great-grandmother of ten, by her late husband Alfred to whom she had been married for over 60 years.

A search of Rolfe’s home at Provost Street, Fordingbridge, found receipts from a pawn shop where the 24-year-old had sold the jewellery – effectively as scrap metal and for a fraction of what they were worth.

Miss Fargin said Mrs Wood, who helped make Spitfires during the war and survived the Blitz at her home in the East End of London, had been left profoundly affected by the betrayal and now found it difficult to trust anyone apart from family.

In the statement Mrs Wood said of Rolfe: “She seemed such a lovely girl and if she had told me she was in trouble I would have helped her the best I could.”

She added that all her memories of her husband had been lost and she felt sad she could not now pass anything on to her family.

In mitigation Nigel Couzins said Rolfe had stolen the jewellery because she was in a dire financial situation and she was being threatened with eviction.

He said: “There is no doubt that she comes here today with her head hung in shame.”

In sentencing Rolfe to 12 months in prison after she admitted one count of theft, Recorder Rosie Collins described the crime as “appalling”.

She said: “It defies description, to do that to a woman who was effectively helpless.”

After the hearing Mrs Piper, 68, from Berkshire, said her mother’s health had severely declined since the incident and she was now needing round-theclock care.

“Doctors have said there is nothing more they can do for her. It is just such an awful thing to have happened at the end of her life, I know it has played on her mind,” she told the Daily Echo.

“She (Rolfe) has the rest of her life to lead but she had wrecked the end of my mum’s.”

No one from Helping Hands care agency was available for comment.

Comments(22)

Queen Victoria says...
2:43pm Thu 19 Jan 12

Shame on her and shame on Helping Hands for not vetting their employees better. No excuses on this one.