A CARER has been struck off after asking for painkillers and more than £1,200 in loans from a man she was supposed to be looking after.

Pamela Duff, who was employed at Carewatch as care support worker until last year, has now been removed from the register for accepting the £1,241.50 from the patient over a period of 10 months as well as the pills.

The Scottish Social Services Council decided on evidence that Duff’s fitness to practice was impaired due to the misconduct between December 2019 and October 2020.

The order came into effect on January 7.

The SSSC found Duff accepted an unknown quantity of Short Tec painkiller tablets on March 19 via text message, and that prior to March 28, 2020 she accepted an unknown quantity of Short Tec painkiller tablets.

She also asked for more pills via text on April 12, requesting either a Long Tec or Short Tec tablet, before asking for painkillers on July 19.

Duff accepted money transferred into her personal bank account from him for purchasing food and cigarettes.

SSSC papers state Duff took two payments of £20 in December 2019, before asking for £117 in five separate payments in January 2020, £60 in four payments in February and £85 in four payments in March.

She borrowed a further £114 in six separate amounts in April, another £248 in seven amounts in May and three more amounts in June totalling £124.

Another £190 followed in six payments in July, and a further £98.50 in October before Duff borrowed £50 in October 2020.

Prior to April 12 2020 Duff also accepted £10 from him.

The panel told Duff in its written report: “You accepted money for varying purposes and medication from a service user while employed as his carer and beyond.

“This involved repeated instances of this behaviour over nearly 10 months.

“It is behaviour indicative of your values that is not easily remediable, if at all. It is a gross breach of trust and was behaviour that fell far below the standards expected of a social service worker. It is behaviour that risks bringing into disrepute the social services profession.

“There is an ongoing public protection risk in respect of your behaviour due to the lack of developed insight demonstrated.

“While there is no indication that there have been previous such issues, your apparent reasoning that you were trying to improve the service user’s life and had their consent, to accept money and medication demonstrates that you do not understand proper professional boundaries.”

A Carewatch representative said: “A matter concerning Ms Duff was brought to the attention of Carewatch in October 2020. In response we initiated formal proceedings including informing the relevant authorities.

“The individual has not been our employee since October 2020.”