A WOMAN who stole thousands of pounds from the bank of an autistic man who lived at the care home where she was manager to fund a drug addiction has been spared jail.

Kelly Helliker, 39, from Combe St Nicholas, had access to the victim’s bank card and pin number and regularly helped herself to cash from his account over a six-month period to fund her spiralling codeine addiction.

It wasn’t until bosses carried out an audit at the home in Langport that they discovered a total of £5,000 had been plundered from the victim’s account without his knowledge.

The defendant made a full confession to the police and when she appeared before Somerset Magistrates her solicitor Sam Morton said she had shown “complete and utter remorse” for her crime and now accepted her 23 year career of working with vulnerable adults was over.

Helliker, pleaded guilty that between December 1, 2015 and May 11, 2016 at Langport she stole money to the value of £5,000 belonging to the victim.

Prosecutor Julyan Stephens said the offence was committed by Helliker in her capacity as a care home manager working for a company called Lifeways which helps people diagnosed with autism.

“She was in control of access to residents’ money and stole from one of the men she looked after,” he said.

“The missing money was discovered when an audit was carried out and it was found the money had been taken over a period of time between December last year and May this year.

“A number of transactions had been made that were not carried out by the victim and were effectively thefts totalling £5,000.”

He said Helliker took the money using the man’s card and number and the money had since been repaid.

When she was interviewed by police she made a full confession and Mr Stephens said it was money that was easy to take because of the position of trust that she held.

In mitigation, Mr Morton said it was not an offence committed for financial gain and Helliker’s thought process at the time was not clear.

He said: “It was committed to try and hide from her husband her developing codeine addiction.

“When this drug is in the body it translates to morphine, so effectively she has had a heroin addiction.

“This was a very easy offence to commit as the bank card was kept in the safe with the pin number and she had access to it.

“However the fact that she walked into the police station and told them what she had done meant she avoided mistrust being placed on other colleagues and demonstrated her complete and utter remorse.”

He said Helliker had been building up her career for 23 years doing a job which she enjoyed.

“However, she knows that her vocation has now gone and she will never return to the type of work that involves vulnerable people,” he said.

“The victim is completely oblivious to this offence having happened and his lifestyle has in no way been affected.”

He added that Helliker’s remorse was demonstrated by the fact that the money had promptly been repaid and she had now been referred to the Somerset Drugs and Alcohol Service (SDAS) by her GP.

The magistrates told Helliker that the offence had been so serious that they had no option other than to impose a custodial sentence saying it had been “a significant breach of trust involving a vulnerable victim” and a large sum of money was involved.

They sentenced her to six months in custody but suspended it for the next two years on condition she does not commit any other offence and carries out 200 hours unpaid work in the community.