A CARER has been found guilty of stealing from an elderly couple after their family set a trap to catch her.Louise King, 38, was secretly filmed taking money out of the purse of Joyce Dowson, who had died just days earlier.

A CARER has been found guilty of stealing from an elderly couple after their family set a trap to catch her.

Louise King, 38, was secretly filmed taking money out of the purse of Joyce Dowson, who had died just days earlier.

She was looking after Mrs Dowson's husband Basil, 78, at the time, who has been reliant on carers and meals-on-wheels since suffering a stroke.

King had denied stealing £7 from the couple, of BrokehallGardens, Ipswich, on August 12 last year and said she could have just been writing her case notes.

But magistrates watched yesterday the black-and-white video tape and decided King, of Arundel Way, Ipswich, had stolen the cash. She was convicted of the offence and will be sentenced on July 1.

The married mother-of-two had denied and was cleared of a second charge of stealing £10 from the purse on August 7 or 8 – which was not on film.

Mr Dowson's son Paul, 44, had set up a video camera about the size of a golf ball in his parent's living room and partly hidden it behind a family portrait. He prepared the trap to test his family's suspicions that King had been stealing from his parents.

King said she had sometimes took money out of the purse with Mrs Dowson's knowledge to pay to milkman or a window cleaner, but denied ever stealing.

Chairman of the bench Ray Condon said he was satisfied the video showed King stealing the cash, although he said there was not enough evidence to prove she stole the £10 days earlier.

Speaking after the case, Mrs Harris said: "We are happy with the result, we think it is a fair result. It will stop her from caring and that is what we hoped for."