A BULLYING care home matron who formed a mock jazz band to intimidate elderly residents could be struck off today.

Maureen Sheikh was found guilty of playing practical jokes to intimidate patients and colleagues at St Mary’s nursing home in Chester-le- Street.

In one incident, the 61-yearold put out a message on the home’s tannoy system for “Chester-le-Street jazz band”

to come to the office.

Moments later, staff emerged banging pots and pans with wooden spoons and blowing party hooters. They repeated the stunt outside a resident’s room the next day.

Sheikh and her gang also mocked a stroke victim by laughing as they mimicked her muddled speech, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.

She was also found guilty of deliberately putting residents together who would not get on for her own amusement, of making hoax calls to a colleague and of failing to investigate a complaint of assault made by one staff member against another.

The panel heard that Shiekh, who managed the home for 11 years, made life unbearable for staff.

On one occasion, dead mice were put in the laundry for one staff member, who was scared of them, to find.

Another time, she failed to intervene when a co-worker chased the same woman with dead mice.

She also discouraged staff complaints, while she and her gang would wear badges saying “grass” or “snitch” in front of anyone who spoke out.

Sheikh, from Washington, Wearside, was dismissed from the home.

She told the hearing she had the “greatest of respect for the residents in my care and their dignity and wellbeing”

and said the jazz band incident was intended to entertain residents and was inspired by TV show Britain’s Got Talent.

Panel chairwoman Pamela Ormerod said: “Her explanations for some of her actions were unusual and, some of the time, improbable.

“This showed, over a long period of time, an uncaring and ambivalent nature.”

The panel will now rule on whether her fitness to practise is impaired. If they decide it is, she could be struck off.