A FORMER nursing home assistant who swindled more than £7,600 from vulnerable elderly residents has been jailed for three months.

Margaret Gegg, 49, of St Hilda's Close, Didcot, had previously admitted three offences of theft and four of false accounting.

Gegg, a married mother-of-two, wept in the dock when she appeared at Oxford Crown Court, as Paul Harrison, prosecuting, outlined how she stole cheque books from three infirm residents and a pension book from another.

He said the victims were a 98-year-old, who has since died, and a 91-year-old and 93-year-old.

The two victims who are still living have not been told of Gegg's crimes because it would distress them, the court heard.

Mr Harrison said the son of one of the victims found discrepancies with his mother's bank account when he was looking after her affairs after she died in October 2005, and that led to the discovery the cheque books had been stolen.

He said: "As a result police inquiries began and police arrested Mrs Gegg in January 2006 and searched her house.

"A cheque for £1,000 payable to Gegg was found in one cheque book."

Mr Harrison said Gegg, who had mild depression, had stolen a total of £7,682.55 by writing the cheques.

Claire Frazer, defending, said Gegg had worked in care homes and for the NHS for 27 years.

She said: "She has never been in trouble with the police. Her husband said she has never had a parking ticket.

"She found herself with escalating debts and was working three days a week in a care home to pay them off.

"When this incident happened she was £20,000 in debt, but now she is in nearer £39,000 of debt, with nine credit cards and debt facilities."

Miss Frazer said Gegg's father, a retired clergyman, had offered to pay back the money she stole.

But Judge David Morton Jack said the £39,000 worth of debt must have been from expenditure made for selfish reasons.