Daughter’s fury as thieving carer avoids jail term

A CARE worker who tended to a housebound, dying man has been ordered to carry out unpaid work for stealing money out of his account before he died.

The sentence handed down to disgraced carer Michelle Macrae has infuriated wheelchair-bound Scott Paterson’s daughter.

Upset Ashley, 24, believes ordering Macrae to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work was “far too lenient”.

Speaking after sentencing was handed down, she said: “I really feel that she’s got away with it.”

Macrae was trusted with wheelchair-bound Scott Paterson’s cash card and PIN as 
he recovered from a second stroke.

The 45-year-old was supposed to buy food for Mr Paterson, a family friend, from his weekly £180 pension payments. Instead she stole his money.

Macrae appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday and was sentenced by Sheriff Frank Crowe to carry out unpaid work in the community for her crime. Ashley, a dental nurse who now lives in England, had travelled to the court to see the sentence delivered.

She said: “It’s far too lenient. I was in court and I just thought that 200 hours of unpaid work is nothing. She’s still got everything she stole from my dad. She’s never paid a penny back.

“It’s been two-and-a-half years of absolute torture and now we would like to put it to rest and put my dad to rest. But I can’t help feeling that 200 hours means she has gotten away with it. That’s about the equivalent of five weeks’ work for what she did to my dad.

“It’s nothing compared to the hell she put my dad through in his last months. He trusted her, they were supposed to be friends. But that’s not what friends do. It’s disgusting.”

Macrae, of Ferry Gait Walk, Muirhouse, had been on trial for stealing £1500 between January and April 2010. She was found guilty of a charge of stealing an “unknown sum” of money from Mr Paterson earlier this month.

Macrae was only caught when her victim was taken to hospital and his daughter found slips for the fraudulent withdrawals in his Granton flat.