A CARER who was caught on camera stealing from her elderly clients has been ordered to carry out 240 hours of community service.Suspicious relatives filmed Louise King, 38, of Arundel Way, Ipswich, taking money out of a purse at the home of Basil Dowson on August 12 last year.

A CARER who was caught on camera stealing from her elderly clients has been ordered to carry out 240 hours of community service.

Suspicious relatives filmed Louise King, 38, of Arundel Way, Ipswich, taking money out of a purse at the home of Basil Dowson on August 12 last year.

She had been caring for Mr Dowson at his home in Brokehall Gardens, Ipswich, and the offence took place just days after the death of his wife, Joyce.

King, who worked for Classic Care Services, denied stealing £7 from the couple but magistrates watched the black-and-white footage and decided she must have taken the money.

Mr Dowson's son Paul set up a camera the size of a golf ball on a dresser in his parents' living room to test his family's suspicions that King had been stealing from their parents.

She appeared before magistrates in Ipswich yesterday was also ordered to pay £150 in costs.

Married mother-of-two King denied and was cleared of a second offence of stealing £10 from the couple – which was not on film – after magistrates ruled there was not enough proof of her guilt.

Mr Dowson, 78, had been reliant on carers and Meals-on-Wheels after suffering a stroke.