TWO victims of a sacked Inverclyde homecare thief told today of their ‘disgust’ that she’s gone unpunished over the cruel crime she perpetrated against them in their own home.

Disabled Maura Darroch and her husband Gordon hit out after learning that Cherylanne Marshall was admonished for stealing a £650 gold and diamond ring from them.

A sheriff decided that Marshall had been sufficiently dealt with after hearing that she’d completed 300 hours of unpaid work for pinching an elderly stroke victim’s bank card.

Maura — who has multiple sclerosis — branded Marshall, whose surname was Rodriguez at the time of the thefts, ‘scum’ over her gross breaches of trust.

Husband Gordon, 52, insisted that justice had not been served, adding that Marshall, 35, has ‘absolutely no remorse’ over what she did to them and her other vulnerable victim.

Maura, 54 — a former senior psychiatric nurse — said: “Carers work with you quite closely and you get to know them and they get to know you.

“A couple of weeks before she did what she did, she said to me, ‘I really like coming here, I like coming to you — your company, and everything’.

“Then this all happened after that. It’s a total betrayal of trust.”

Maura, of Inverkip, told how she refused to believe at first that someone as kind and caring as Marshall appeared to have stolen from her while her back was turned.

She said: “I was gobsmacked, and I couldn’t understand someone doing that.

“We were going on holiday to Florida on the day I noticed the ring was missing.

“She ruined our holiday.”

Asked what she thought of Marshall now, Maura said: “I just think that she’s basically the scum of the earth.” 

Marshall helped herself to the item of jewellery, a special gift from Gordon, from a counter top in Maura’s wet room — where she always left it when she went to get washed.

She was prosecuted over the missing ring after CCTV footage and transaction details revealed that she’d taken it to a Greenock pawn shop and sold it.

The Telegraph told last year how, in a separate scam, she stole a frail and heavily dependent 79-year-old woman’s debit card and used it to plunder her bank account.

She initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but finally admitted what she’d done only after being confronted with the weight of evidence against her.

The thief was spared prison after a sheriff ruled that he had to balance the public’s ‘abhorrence’ at her crimes with the long-term interests of her young children.

It was decided last month that Marshall would be admonished for the ring theft because she had complied fully with a community payback order on the other matter.

She stole the items from the homes of clients in September 2015 whilst employed by Greenock-based Cottage Care Services, who fired her after her crimes came to light.

Victim Gordon, above, said: “I just want to say that the Cottage Care staff and management are excellent and I don’t blame them at all.

“This Cherylanne creature was the one bad apple.”

Mr Darroch told how prior to the theft from his house he spotted Marshall ‘rummaging’ through a collection of boxed Compare the Market meerkat toys and that his recollection of that was the ‘trigger’ for him suspecting her of the jewellery theft.

He said: “She asked me if she could have a couple for her kids and I said no, and she shouldn’t be touching them.

“Maybe I should have phoned the care company then but I just thought that she was being a nosey so-and-so.”

At her sentencing hearing last year, Sheriff Derek Hamilton told Marshall: “I’m told you have shown remorse but I don’t necessarily agree with that.

“If you were remorseful you would have admitted what you did at an earlier stage. I think that you are sorry about being caught.

“I consider this to be extremely serious — preying on vulnerable individuals.

“There was a gross breach of trust here against not one, but two people, and that shows a pattern of offending.”
Gordon agrees with the sheriff’s sentiments.

He said: “It’s the lack of remorse. Where’s the recompense from her? 

“I’ve not had a phone call, no offer of money back, Maura’s not had an apology, nothing.

“There’s nothing. She has not been hit in the pocket for what she’s done.”

Gordon added that he feels the court should have done more.

He said: “I feel let down badly by the court, very much so. I’m disgusted actually.

“I didn’t get the chance to go to court and sit and face that creature.

“I was led to believe I couldn’t go to the court because she was pleading guilty and nobody told me that I could just go along anyway.

“But I don’t think I’d have been able to keep my mouth shut and I would probably have said something.”

Gordon added: “We’ve had rough justice, partial justice, call it what you will, but we’ve not had justice.

“To me, she should have got a custodial sentence.

“She’s been treated leniently in my opinion.”