A care company boss has been jailed for swindling a housebound 89-year-old woman out of thousands of pounds by using the pensioner’s bank card to play internet bingo up to seven times a day.

Suzanne Firth, 41, who runs Able Hands home help business in Bradford, befriended frail Phyllis Wyatt to the extent that they spent Christmas together and she became her legal next of kin.

But the thefts came to light when managers at the sheltered housing complex in Idle, Bradford, where Miss Wyatt lives, told Social Services she was in debt and could not pay her bills.

Prosecutor Emma Downing told Bradford Crown Court yesterday Firth threw away Miss Wyatt’s bank statements and the shocked pensioner discovered her £25,000 savings had vanished.

Jailing Firth for a year, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge James Stewart QC, condemned her abuse of trust which included blaming her victim’s forgetfulness for the loss of the money.

He said: “I find this an extremely distressing case, involving a woman of 41 with no previous convictions, but the effect on this lady has been catastrophic. She is extremely poorly and frail and she (Firth) relied on that to be able to steal from her.”

The court heard that Miss Wyatt, who has limited mobility and no family living close by, paid Able Hands £162 a month from 2007 for day-to-day tasks. The company, set up that year, was run by Firth and her husband.

Miss Downing said Miss Wyatt regarded Firth as a friend. The home help took her to medical appointments and, in February, 2010, became her next of kin.

But Firth betrayed her trust by using her bank card to play internet bingo, sometimes up to seven times a day for several days together. When she won, she withdrew the winnings from Miss Wyatt’s account.

Firth, of Allanbridge Close, Thorpe Edge, Bradford, was arrested in August, 2010, and denied the offences.

She told investigating officers Miss Wyatt was forgetful and that others had access to her bank card and must have taken the money.

Firth eventually admitted three offences of fraud, between November, 2007, and June, 2010.

She had been charged with nine offences, totalling £25,000, but the Crown accepted guilty pleas to a much smaller amount of more than £2,000 on the day of trial because of Miss Wyatt’s age, frailty and poor memory.

Miss Wyatt had to attend court to give evidence in November because Firth had initially denied the offences – a matter which provoked criticism from Judge Stewart as he read the pensioner’s handwritten victim impact statement and he ordered the Crown Prosecution Service to inform him why.

He said: “The poor lady can barely write. Was she given no comfort that an application to read her statement could be made? And if not, why not?

“She is 89 and she says that she is very poorly and very worried about attending court. You would have thought that might have clicked in someone’s mind.”

In mitigation Firth’s barrister, Charlotte Worsley, said: “She knows what she did was cruel and unfair.”

She had written to apologise to Miss Wyatt and was “absolutely terrified and very tearful” about the court proceedings. She loved Miss Wyatt and regarded her as one of the family.

Judge Stewart ordered Firth to pay her back at £10 a week when she has been let out of jail.

In July last year, the Telegraph & Argus started a campaign called With Respect to raise awareness of the plight of older people who are too often given a raw deal in society.