PC spent £30k on vulnerable elderly neighbour's card

A police officer who "exploited" the trust of his elderly neighbour to spend about £30,000 on her bank card has been sacked.

PC Gary Carson helped himself to Starbucks and McDonald's orders, a pressure washer, takeaways, men's toiletries, police equipment and his family's Tesco shopping without permission between February 2020 and March 2023.

He also failed to raise safeguarding concerns about the fact the woman, who has since died, was living in "squalor" in a filthy house with a blocked toilet.

Merseyside Police said Carson had breached the trust of a "vulnerable" woman and it was right that he had been dismissed.

The Crown Prosecution Service declined to press criminal charges against Carson but he was found guilty of gross misconduct by a police disciplinary panel.

His misconduct hearing was told the woman was "smitten" with Carson and even after she was told he had been helping himself to her money became defensive and "didn't want him to get in trouble".

The woman's daughter later told police she would have been "infatuated with anyone that wore a uniform" and "felt safe" because a police officer lived next door to her in Heath Road South in Runcorn, Cheshire.

Carson, who had a county court judgement recorded against him in 2013 and had been struggled financially, claimed he had only purchased items for the woman or with her permission.

But the panel noted payments to Domino's Pizza, Papa Johns, My Protein, Uber Eats, Tool Station, Pure Gym and almost £25,000 of Tesco orders - including on dates when the woman was in hospital.

Carson did not attend the hearing at Merseyside Police Headquarters but in a written statement to the panel denied any wrongdoing.

He said he was "sickened" that his actions to help and support his elderly neighbour had been "misconstrued".

The panel heard the woman had been estranged from her family, including her daughter and sister, for a number of years.

Her neighbours befriended her from about 2015, and Carson would help get her shopping and with odd jobs.

At some stage she entrusted him with her bank card to set up an online shopping account with Tesco, and said he was able to "buy his children ice creams" using her card.

In 2022 the woman's daughter got word her mother was in hospital and went to visit, partially rekindling their relationship.

At about the same time her sister also got back in touch, and was concerned the woman seemed to be in poor health and living in filthy conditions.

Around Christmas 2023, the daughter visited her mother at home.

She later told the police that the house was "not in a good state" and its downstairs was "littered with unknown black bits".

Areas of the floor smelt of urine and faeces and it appeared to be due to the blocked toilet her mother had been using.

The woman said it was clear her mother had been sleeping on the sofa and there was minimal food in the house other than sweets and cakes.

The panel's judgement read: "She was extremely upset that her mother had been living like that."

The daughter was told by her mother that Carson and his family were very supportive, so she introduced herself and was told he had been intending to get a family member to help unblock the toilet.

It was only later, when she began setting up social care support, that she looked into her mother's finances.

She immediately noted a series of purchases which were unusual for her mother's lifestyle, and there were payments for fuel despite the fact her mother did not own a car.

There was also a transfer of £10,000 from a savings account to her current account, which Carson later admitted he had helped her to do to cover her day-to-day expenses.

The daughter suspected Carson, but did not feel she had enough evidence to report him until she noticed a payment to a website called Police Supplies UK.

Despite his denials, the misconduct panel, chaired by Assistant Chief Constable Andy Ryan, concluded Carson had used her account dishonestly.

Ryan wrote: "The panel considered that PC Carson's conduct was intentional, deliberate and planned. PC Carson purchased items for the benefit of himself and his family."

It also found Carson had breached professional standards of behaviour by not making a safeguarding referral, despite his training.

Det Ch Supt Sabi Kaur, head of the force's Professional Standards Department, told the BBC: "He exploited the trust of a vulnerable, elderly woman and - while he may have made purchases requested by the neighbour - went on to buy other items beyond what had been agreed.

"His behaviour was completely unacceptable and risked seriously undermining public confidence in policing.

"It is absolutely right that he has been dismissed from the Force and can no longer serve in policing."

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