A domiciliary care worker from Carmarthenshire has been removed from the Register of Social Care Workers after a Social Care Wales hearing found her fitness to practise is currently impaired because of her criminal conviction.
In September 2021, Yasmin Pugh pleaded guilty at Swansea Crown Court to stealing £16,000 worth of items from a vulnerable person in her care and was subsequently given a custodial sentence of 16 months that was suspended for 24 months.
The hearing was told that Ms Pugh did not tell Social Care Wales about the allegations against her, the police investigation or her conviction, and Social Care Wales only found out after seeing a news article online about the court case.
After considering the evidence, the panel concluded that Ms Pugh’s fitness to practise was currently impaired because of her criminal conviction.
The panel explained its decision, saying: “There are multiple acts of theft perpetrated against this elderly and vulnerable lady and her niece. Money, shopping vouchers and multiple pieces of jewellery were taken. The jewellery was disposed of at different times through jewellery outlets in Llanelli.
“Insofar as the victim is concerned, this was not, in our view, a single isolated incident, but rather amounted to an exploitative and abusive course of conduct, and there is direct evidence of both financial and emotional harm being caused to the victim and her wider family.”
The panel continued: “There is no evidence before us that Ms Pugh has reflected on how her conduct fell significantly short of the standard expected. There is nothing before us relating to how she has taken (or would take) measures to guard against the risk of behaving in a similar way in future.
“In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, there is a real and tangible risk that Ms Pugh is susceptible to resorting to this sort of behaviour in the future, especially if she were to find herself in similar personal circumstances in the future.”
The panel decided to remove Ms Pugh from the Register, saying: “We do not consider that any lesser disposal would protect the public, given the lack of insight and remediation to which we have already referred, and the dishonesty that features in the offence committed by Ms Pugh.”
Ms Pugh was not present at the one-day hearing, which took place over Zoom last week.