AN NHS worker conned her mother after racking up debts of nearly £20,000 by taking out credit cards and setting up catalogue accounts in her name.

Samantha Parfitt, aged 40, of Ebbw Terrace, Abercarn, targeted the frail and retired Glenda Cook over a three-year period, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Nik Strobl said: “The victim in this case is the defendant’s mother who was in ill-health after a number of strokes.”

He told the court how the ruse began to unravel last February when Bonprix sent the bewildered victim a letter which told her she owed them £838.56.

Judge Niclas Parry heard how it was then revealed that Parfitt had spent £19,592 in her mother’s name and her family “confronted” her.

The defendant pleaded guilty to committing fraud between 2015 and 2018 when she appeared before Newport magistrates.

Mr Strobl referred to Mrs Cook’s victim impact statement in which she said she was “very distressed by this breach of trust which has had an effect on her poor health”.

He said the defendant, who sobbed in the dock, had no previous convictions.

Kevin Seal, mitigating, said: “No offence is worse than taking from your mother but that’s not how it started out.”

Judge Parry told Parfitt: “This offence has had a marked effect on your mother. She could not believe what her daughter has done to her.

“This began as a scheme to obtain credit which you fully intended to repay.

“You work for the NHS where you are highly regarded. You have no previous convictions and have two young children.

“You walked into a police station and told them what you had done and pleaded guilty.”

He jailed her for six months, suspended for 12 months, and ordered her to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

The judge was told she had returned some of the money to her mother.

He added: “Keep on making the payments. If you reoffend, you know you will have to go into custody. Get back to being a decent woman.”