A BLACK Country care worker has pleaded guilty to stealing cash from a Stourbridge pensioner’s purse after being caught in the act by a secret camera.

Sheryvone Brooks from Sedgley admitted taking £30 from 85-year-old Evelyn Nicholson’s home in Norton on January 6 .

The 20-year-old, from Fox Meadow Close, pleaded guilty to one count of theft when she appeared at Dudley Magistrates Court yesterday (Thursday) and is due to be sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on March 18.

Mrs Nicholson’s son Robert Smith, aged 65, said the secret recording device was installed after he raised concerns about money going missing with the care company Brooks worked for - Gateway Health and Social Care Dudley.

He told the News: “She pleaded guilty to taking £30 which we had placed in the purse when we set the camera up.”

The footage shows Brooks opening a draw, reaching for the purse and glancing to see if anyone is looking before taking the money from the purse – and Mr Smith added: “She’s actually talking to mum while she’s doing it.”

The court was reportedly told Brooks had financial difficulties but Mr Smith said: “Mum’s old school and she said ‘if she’d have asked me I’d have given her the money; mum’s like that - she’d help anybody out.”

And he said his wife has been a carer for 25 years and added: “She wouldn’t even take a chocolate.”

Brooks, who is believed to have worked for Gateway Health and Social Care Dudley for about six months, is reported to have been dismissed from her post.

No-one from Gateway Health wished to comment.