Care home manager Amy Morris cleared of allegations

FORMER care home manager Amy Morris has been cleared of allegations that she defrauded her employers.

The prosecution dropped the case against the 29-year-old yesterday.

She had appeared in court over 18 charges that she had defrauded Chargrove Lane care home in Shurdington, where she worked.

Last week, Mrs Morris was found not guilty of four of the 18 fraud charges against her.

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The jury at Gloucester Crown Court could not agree on verdicts on the 14 other charges and were discharged.

Prosecutor Lisa Hennessy returned to court yesterday to announce that the Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to ask for a retrial on the 14 unresolved charges.

She formally offered no evidence on them and Judge William Hart declared Mrs Morris not guilty and discharged her.

It had been alleged that Mrs Morris, of Midsummer Walk, in Hempsted, Gloucester, obtained £5,755.18 from the Chargrove Lane care home in Shurdington by claiming payment for 44 nightshifts she had not actually worked between July 2010 and October 2011.

Rota

She told the jury that missing rota sheets would prove her innocence if they could be found.

She insisted she had worked all the night shifts she was paid for.

She also suggested she had "possibly been set up" by others within the company. She had told the jury that she had been responsible for all aspects of running the home, which had 26 residents of varying degrees of disability, and she did some care work as well.

Asked why she would be working night shifts regularly when she was a manager, she said that it was because it had been hard to recruit carer staff to do 11-hour nights.

Rotas showing who had worked during the preceding week would be sent in by her every Monday to head office for payment, she said.

She said a Quality Care Commission inspection of the home on August 2, 2011, led ultimately to her resigning.

It was after she had left the firm and disputed her final pay that the problems began.