A Dundee housing support manager is facing a string of allegations including “misappropriating” money from a service user.
Lorain Carberry has been accused of making 90 transactions during which £277.41 was transferred into her Paypal account from service user A’s bank.
The transactions were said to have taken place while Ms Carberry was employed as a locality manager by Sense Scotland.
When questioned by her manager and a colleague, she stated that she had contacted the bank and had been told it was an error – but it was alleged that she had in fact made the transaction herself by linking her personal Paypal account to A’s debit card.
Ms Carberry has also been accused of failing to ensure that transactions of around £6000 were recorded in service user A’s financial records.
She was further said to have failed to report or take action when unusual transactions were present in A’s bank statements resulting in around £6,000 being removed from his bank account without his knowledge.
Other allegations included failing to ensure that bank statements were placed in A’s financial folder; failing to ensure that transactions were recorded in service user B’s financial records and that recordings were made of how much of B’s money was kept in the office; not ensuring that transactions were recorded in service user C’s financial records and that C’s financial guardian was provided with copies of bank statements.
Ms Carberry was also accused of repeatedly failing to comply with an instruction given by her manager to provide a monthly incident and accident report, failing to conduct supervisions with seniors and/or practitioners and not ensuring that procedures were in place to review the support plans of service users every six months.
The alleged events were said to have taken place between around January 18 2010 and around October 16 2014.
The fitness to practise panel will decide if the allegation is proved, whether the worker is fit to practise, as well as whether a sanction should be placed on their registration.
A worker is fit to practise if they meet the standards of character, conduct and competence necessary to do their job safely and effectively with regard to the Code of Practice for Social Service Workers and the Code of Practice for Employers of Social Service Workers.
The allegations may be amended during the Scottish Social Services Council hearing; the panel may decide that not all of the allegations are proved or it may be decided that the worker’s fitness to practise is not impaired and dismiss the case.
Sense Scotland has been contacted for comment.
Ms Carberry could not be reached for comment at the time of going to print.
