Care home manager stole £50k from residents

A former care home manager who offered to help families who were struggling to pay residents' fees but then paid the money into her own bank account has been jailed.

Michaela Golding, 58, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position and to false accounting.

She stole more than £50,000 from vulnerable residents and their families at a care home in Filey between October 2022 and June 2024, York Crown Court heard earlier.

Golding, of Greenfields Avenue, Osgodby, was sentenced to 32 months in prison at the same court.

Golding offered to help the relatives of residents who were struggling to manage care home fees and finances, but on several occasions paid the money intended for expenses into her personal accounts, the court heard.

She also admitted changing invoices from the podiatry service, which came to care for residents, by increasing the costs and taking the extra money from residents' personal budgets.

In interview, Golding admitted the offences.

She took more than £27,000 from one of the victims, the court was told.

The son of one of Golding's victims said he felt "intense anger, which was then replaced by an overwhelming feeling of sickness," when he discovered that money had been taken from his mother before her death.

"My mum was living in a care home and was being looked after by people whom I believed I could trust - people who were supposed to protect her at a time when she was at her most vulnerable," he said.

"I feel a strong need for justice for my mum.

"I hope that at some point Michaela will truly understand the seriousness of what she has done and the lasting impact it has had on my family."

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