Former Girvan carer admits stealing money from old man

A woman who used to work at Hillcrest Care Home in Girvan has admitted stealing money from an elderly man she was supposed to be looking after.

Thirty-one year-old Zoe Davidson pleaded guilty at Ayr Sheriff Court to taking cash from 74-year-old William Cleland's account without his permission.

We've been speaking exclusively to his daughter Kristine who trusted he would be safe when he moved there back in 2019.

But that trust was betrayed when a senior member of staff approached her last year to say money was going missing.

She exclusively told Clyde 1: "It's heartbreaking because he is at the stage of his life where he could be doing stuff with the money he has earned over decades.

"Knowing someone has taken a significant amount that doesn't belong to them is really difficult."

In May last year, William Cleland told the senior staff member money from his wallet was missing.

Workers were then told to keep a record of all withdrawals from his account and the process appeared to be working up until mid August.

A bank statement in his name was then discovered with a total of 28 unexplained transactions ranging from £40 to £150.

In police interviews, Davidson said she regretted stealing money from his account but she "didn't think she would ever get caught".

"I feel sick to my stomach"

Kristine added: "At first I was giving her the benefit of the doubt because of the cost-of-living crisis.

"I thought she might have had children to feed, but then we had the proof.

"I feel sick to my stomach."

Our Senior Reporter Callum McQuade tried to speak to Davidson outside of court but she refused.

She will be sentenced on September 30.

Lessons learned

A spokesperson from the South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership said: "The South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) became aware of the incident in September 2023.

"The member of staff involved was suspended at the time and is no longer employed by the organisation.

"A full internal investigation took place at the time of the incident and relevant partners were notified including the SSSC, Police Scotland and the Care Inspectorate in line with our policies and procedures.

"All learning from this investigation has been implemented into practice.

"While we cannot comment on individual cases we would like to stress that the South Ayrshire HSCP takes the safety of our residents and the security of our Care Homes with the upmost importance.

"We apologised to the resident involved as soon as we were aware of the incident and did our upmost to ensure relevant support was made available.

"We would like to also apologise for any stress this incident has caused loved ones affected."

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