A care home worker who plundered the bank accounts of two elderly residents has been jailed for eight months.

Bradford Crown Court heard how Katrina Mann used the bank cards of 92-year-old Emma Sellers and 71-year-old Doreen Kelly to withdraw money and to buy goods from shops.

The total amount involved was just over £6,400, the court was told.

Mann, 21, of Benbow Avenue, Ravenscliffe, Bradford, pleaded guilty to offences of theft and obtaining property by deception.

Passing sentence, Judge Roger Scott said there was a considerable problem in care homes throughout the UK with staff stealing from patients or clients and it was "very worrying."

He told Mann: "You were, for four days, in charge of these two ladies and it took you four days to start stealing from them. It must have taken a great deal of dishonesty to do that.

"You acted wholly unprofessionally and thoroughly dishonestly day in, day out. This was a total betrayal of trust."

The judge was reminded that Mann is due to give birth next July, but he said: "Those who work in care homes or residential homes and steal from clients must know they will go to custody whether they are pregnant or not."

Heather Gilmore, prosecuting, said that at the time of the offences Mann was employed as an activities co-ordinator at the Ashcroft nursing home in Undercliffe, Bradford.

Her duties involved taking the residents out shopping and she dishonestly used their bank cards to obtain money for herself.

Matters came to light in January last year when Mann told her manager that she had wrongly used a resident's card on one occasion. At about the same time, Mrs Kelly's daughter queried several entries on her mother's bank account.

Asumpta O'Rourke, mitigating, said that at the time Mann was a naive teenager who saw the opportunity to improve her own situation. She knew her dishonesty would come to light eventually.