Marlborough carer duped vulnerable man to feed drug habit (From This Is Wiltshire)

Marlborough carer duped vulnerable man to feed drug habit

4:00pm Thursday 9th September 2010 in

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Care home assistant manager Darren Ball fuelled his drugs habit by stealing thousands of pounds from one of the four vulnerable men he looked after.

Ball, 44, of Cherry Orchard, in Marlborough, appeared before magistrates in Salisbury on Friday where he admitted stealing £3,085 from Brian Hall, who lives in a home run by the care agency Dimensions at Rabley Wood View.

Magistrates felt their powers of sentence were inadequate and committed Ball for sentence at Salisbury Crown Court. He was granted bail.

The court heard that Ball was deputy manager of the Dimensions home and looked after Mr Hall, who suffers from Down’s Syndrome, has severe learning disabilities and is unable to communicate.

Between last November and June, Ball took Mr Hall to his bank in Marlborough and stood with him while he took out cash, which Ball kept.

The Vulnerable Adults Unit run by Wiltshire police was called in to investigate by Dimensions after financial irregularities were discovered.

Ball made a full confession to VAU officers and told them he took the money to fuel a drugs addiction.

Retired detective Andrew Guy, a member of the VAU team, said the investigation showed that a second bank account had been set up in Mr Ball’s name into which standing order payments were made from Mr Hall’s main bank account.

On the dates cash was withdrawn from the bank Ball was the only member of staff on duty at the home.

As well as stealing from his client, Ball entered the Dimensions offices in Marlborough and stole £270 between June and July.

Mr Guy said: “Ball made a full and frank admission and is full of remorse.”

Ball was not at his home when the Gazette tried to interview him yesterday and his mother said she had no idea where he was.

Luke Joy-Smith, regional director of Dimensions, said: “The safety and wellbeing of the people we support is always Dimensions’ primary focus and we take any expression of concern or allegation very seriously.

“We would like to provide an assurance that none of the people we support, or their families, will suffer any financial loss as a result of any irregularities that may have occurred.”