A CARE home manager who stole nearly £10,000 from elderly residents' savings to fund her abusive boyfriend's gambling habit has been struck off.

Allyson Smith, 39, helped herself to cash stored in the safe at the Ashton Grange Care Home, in Sunderland, pilfering more than £900 from one ailing woman shortly before she died, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) was told.

The qualified nurse was handed a 12-month suspended sentence at Newcastle Crown Court in February last year after she admitted theft.

Smith, from Sunderland, admitted taking just under £10,000, but the owners of the home, Southern Cross Healthcare, claimed more than £16,000 was missing, the panel was told.

Nailah Mears, for the NMC, told yesterday's hearing in London: "This is a case of theft of a large amount of money over a considerable period of time.

"These thefts occurred in relation to very vulnerable and often elderly patients to whom the registrant was supposed to be providing care and support."

Smith took over as manager of Ashton Grange in October 2003, and started stealing cash from the safe the following summer.

She did not attend the hearing, but in a letter read to the panel, she said her shop assistant partner was beating her and demanding money to fund his gambling addiction.

She wrote: "Two or three times a week, he would hit me about the head and body. Quite frequently, I attended work with bruises."

Smith borrowed money from both their families and took out several loans, all of which were swallowed up by his gambling, she said.

"If I didn't give him money, he would be violent. I was too frightened not to give him money when he demanded it," the letter said.

According to Smith, her boyfriend put pressure on her to steal from the residents in August 2004, after finding her working on the home's accounts.

She began to take cash from the safe, which contained individual residents' savings, the panel was told.

"I used to put it back in, but it got to the point where I couldn't do it, even with my wages," Smith said.

Smith would steal between £50 and £500 at a time, the hearing was told. In the case of one elderly resident - who died at about the time Smith was caught - her savings had been depleted from £917 to just £1.38.

In May 2006, the home's managers decided to conduct an audit of the home's finances. Knowing she would be caught, Smith confessed by letter the day before the audit was due to start. She made a full admission to police.

Ms Mears told the hearing that Smith should not work as a nurse due to the gross breach of trust.

"The money in effect belonged to residents of the home, some of whom were elderly and incapable of looking after their own affairs," she said.

The panel accepted Smith was genuinely sorry, but said her dishonesty was so serious she could not stay on the nursing register.

Panel chairwoman Catherine Duthie said: "Honesty and trustworthiness are fundamental requirements of the profession."