Jail for Ollerton care home manager who swindled more than £55,000 from vulnerable residents
The manager of an Ollerton care home who swindled more than £55,000 from vulnerable residents she was supposed to be caring for has been jailed, a court has heard.
Keeley Coleman’s thieving started “almost immediately” after she started managing The Old Vicarage, in Ollerton, a care home which supports people on the autism spectrum, those with learning disabilities and other severe and complex needs, in December 2020.
Over the next three years, she bought a hot tub, a car and a caravan, using bank cards belonging to nine vulnerable residents which were all locked in a safe in an office, said Megan Morrison, prosecuting.
After her arrest Coleman, aged 48, said she stole the cash because she was “in debt and struggling but never intended it to escalate in the way it did”.
Nottingham Crown Court heard Coleman was shortlisted in the ‘Care Home Manager’ category at the Great British Care Awards in 2023.
Concerns were raised in October 2023, and an internal investigation revealed she took £21,528.40 from one resident, £10,457.65 from another and a total of £23,634.51 from the pooled cards of seven other residents.
The total loss to the company was calculated to be £61,050.99.
Declan Smith, mitigating, said she deserved credit for her guilty pleas which were entered at the first opportunity.
The court heard her husband’s business was in difficulty at the time and she is the full-time carer for her son.
Coleman, of Savile Road, Bilsthorpe, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by abuse of position and once count of false accounting.
On Wednesday, Judge Philip Head jailed her for two years and seven months.