A CARE home manager who was arrested trying to flee the country after stealing £40,000 from vulnerable residents has been jailed.

Middlesbrough man Anthony McElvaney was stopped at Heathrow Airport about to board a flight to Bolivia to be with his wife and family.

McElvaney had earlier left his workplace in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, as he feared his "monstrous" crimes were to be discovered.

The 44-year-old had been employed by The Wilf Ward Family Trust for just a month before he started stealing in August 2014, a court heard.

He had control of the bank accounts of six residents in the two homes he managed, where their care was paid for by the county council.

Over an 18-month period, he "systematically plundered" cash and sent it to his family in South America, prosecutor Ian West told a judge.

The residents – all described as "lacking to a greater or lesser degree in mental health capacity" – had between £4,000 and £9,000 stolen.

Judge Sean Morris, at Teesside Crown Court, told former labourer McElvaney: "What you did was a monstrous breach of trust."

He added: "Within four weeks, you were fleecing residents of their money. These are people who put their faith in people to help them.

"I am not been demeaning here, but it's almost a child-like faith, and you have upset them, caused them distress, and confusion and worry."

The court heard how one frightened resident asked if they would be taken to prison because it was their money which had gone missing.

In a statement, the trust's deputy regional manager told how others missed McElvaney's morning phone calls and meeting him for breakfast.

She said: "Each one of them trusted Mr McElvaney. They liked him . . . and never doubted he could or would do anything to harm them."

Robert Mochrie, mitigating, said he wired some of the money to Bolivia and spent some to fund a gambling addiction by playing fruit machines.

He said McElvaney had mostly worked in labouring and steel erecting, but changed careers after two friends died in industrial accidents.

Mr Mochrie branded the thefts "mean" and told Judge Morris: "He seeks to apologise through me, but he makes no excuses for his behaviour.

"When he did what he did, clearly he didn't give a great degree of thought to those victims. He does now, and understands the suffering.

"I concede on his behalf it would be difficult to imagine offending of this nature committed in a greater degree of breach of trust."

McElvaney, of Ashdale, Middlesbrough, was jailed for two years after he admitted six charges of theft and one of transferring criminal property.