A callous East Lothian carer has been snared stealing money from the home of a terminally ill man he was looking after.
Anthony McKnight was caught after the family of 87-year-old Kenneth Samuel started to notice cash going missing from the pensioner's wallet at his home in Haddington. For months, his family put the missing money down to Kenneth misplacing it, giving it to his grandkids or spending it on a jaunt to the bookies.
But McKnight was rumbled when Kenneth's three eagle-eyed daughters used an old camera to keep an eye on him. And they were horrified when checking the footage to find it showing McKnight opening a drawer next to Kenneth, lifting cash out and slipping it into his uniform.
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After taking the shocking footage to the police, McKnight was eventually charged and later pled guilty to theft. One of Kenneth's daughter's, Caroline Samuel, has spoken of her disgust at McKnight's actions.
Speaking about the incident to Edinburgh Live, Caroline said: "My dad lived in Edinburgh all his days until my mum passed away five years ago and my elder sister and I both live in Haddington so we managed to get him a house right opposite the bowling club. He moved in there four years ago and my sister Laura was staying with him because he wouldn't have eaten.
"He had prostate cancer previously and we realised he wasn't well at all then he was diagnosed with bowel cancer so we needed someone to come in a few days a week to help him shower and shave so from about February until June Anthony came in and done that. He helped him get changed, took him for a cup of tea and it was fine.
"Eventually we noticed that he started losing quite a bit of money and was acting odd. We assumed he had given it to the grandkids but my sister has always had these old dog cams to keep an eye on him if he fell or was at home alone. One day she switched it on before Anthony visited and took the red light off it so he wouldn't know it was recording him.
"Clear as day, Anthony was caught going into my dad's drawer right beside where he was sitting and lifting money from what we call my dad's wallet, which was just an old file. He lifted it out, put it in his pocket then left to go to the bathroom or faffed about for a bit."
The shocking revelation rocked Caroline and her two sisters who had begun to blame themselves over the missing money - even questioning whether any of them had misplaced it. She said they even accepted a little bit of the blame for not doing research on McKnight before asking him to help out.
But Caroline said McKnight was a private sector carer who was well known in Haddington so they never suspected he could commit such a crime.
"We knew Anthony for a long time. He was well known and in fairness, when my sister said we were getting him in to help we thought it was such a relief that my dad as going to be looked after."
Caroline continued: "My dad was still active when Anthony started caring for him that's why we thought he could be going to the bookies. My sister would ask me if dad gave me any money and then my dad would take money out of his pocket and then look on the floor which was bizarre.
"My sister started looking through his clothes but we just couldn't find it, that's when the penny dropped. It was discovered around June 21 that we caught him on camera. We suspected my dad may have been suffering from dementia so we couldn't just ask him where it was.
"When we made the discovery, we just phoned the police and kept putting Anthony off when he wanted to come in. He was brought in for questioning by the police and he claimed it was his wages that he took, but my sister always paid by leaving an envelope."
Kenneth sadly passed away just weeks after McKnight was caught. McKnight pled guilty to theft at Edinburgh Justice of the Peace Court on November 29 and was fined £100 and ordered to pay £100 compensation to Mr Samuel.
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