A VOLUNTEER care worker has been convicted of stealing from a disabled Irby man.

Karl Frederick, aged 48, was found guilty of five theft charges by a Liverpool Crown Court jury.

Frederick, of Queensbury Avenue, Bromborough, has been further remanded on bail until April 11 to enable pre-sentence reports to be prepared.

During his trial Mr Thomson Killeen, prosecuting, said that Frederick had abused his position and stolen from the other man, a doctor of physics, after building up a trusting relationship.

Some of the items were taken without the victim's knowledge and others he had 'badgered' him into handing over, he said.

Mr Killeen told the court that 52-year-old Dr Albert Bingham, of Irby, was severely disabled because of a degenerative spinal condition.

Frederick was part of a legitimate and laudable care scheme to assist disabled people to come back into the community, but he had abused his position of trust, he said.

He met the doctor in hospital and helped with his preparations for returning to his Wirral home in January last year.

Dr Bingham did not want Frederick going into certain rooms where his mother's property was kept, but Frederick ignored this request, said Mr Killeen.

Items taken without the doctor's knowledge included jewellery and silver ingots.

Other items which Frederick had 'badgered' him into giving him included a cooker.

The court heard that Dr Bingham recalled Frederick saying: "The stuff you're on, you'll never remember any of this."

"That indicates what the defendant thought he could get away with," said Mr Killeen.

The police were alerted in March last year and when they went to Frederick's home they found various items belonging to victim taken by virtue of various ploys, said Mr Killeen.

Frederick denied stealing from Dr Bingham and said that some of the items, including a monk's bench and a video recorder had been gifts from the scientist.

The jury cleared him of stealing camera equipment and could not agree on another charge involving stealing a monk's bench.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.