Yvonne Allen thought no one would notice when she stole to £100 from 75-year-old leukaemia sufferer Thelma Sampson while saving up for a holiday in Las Vegas.

But she did not reckon on the ingenuity of her victim's grand daughter Emma - a forensic science graduate - who came up with the idea of secreting a camera in the teddy bear's eye.

Allen, 28, of Halewood, Liverpool, was jailed for six months at the city's Community Justice Centre after pleading guilty to two counts of theft.

The court heard that relatives became suspicious of the carer when they noticed £40 had gone missing from Mrs Sampson's handbag after she visited Mrs Sampson's home in Walton in July.

At his daughter's suggestion, Mrs Sampson's son Robert bought a small surveillance camera from a local DIY store and concealed it inside a pink teddy bear in the bedroom.

The next day, when Allen - who has since been sacked from Liverpool Primary Care Trust - visited again, the family checked Mrs Sampson's handbag and found that £60 was missing, the court was told.

They immediately checked the camera and saw her in the act.

"I went out to Taskers and bought a surveillance camera and put it into the eye of a teddy bear and put it in my mum's bedroom," Mr Sampson explained.

"It didn't look suspicious because there was another teddy bear on the other side of the room."

Passing sentencing District Judge Ian Lomax said: "The offence was particularly serious because the victim was elderly and suffering from a terminal illness and the defendant had been specifically employed to make the victim's life more tolerable and easier.

"Instead, she chose to steal from her.

"Whilst the amounts stolen were relatively small, no doubt they would have been greater if not for the prompt action of the victim's son in detecting the crime.

"This was a breach of trust of the worst kind."