A carer from Bovey Tracey has denied using a 91-year-old woman’s cash card to withdraw almost £4,000 and claimed it was stolen by a mystery intruder at her home.

Carolyn Howarth-Podesta told Exeter Crown Court she was not the woman who was caught on CCTV at a cashpoint in Newton Abbot withdrawing cash while wearing a burgundy coat with a fur hood.

She said she owned a coat which was similar but insisted she had never worn the hood, which she had given to her dog to play with.

The carer said the same dog had eaten a handbag which was similar to one in the CCTV image taken at the ATM in Newton Abbot.

The prosecution says Howarth-Podesta took housebound widow Eleni Marwick’s bank card in January last year and used it 13 times to withdraw the maximum daily limit of £300.

The card was cancelled when Mrs Marwick’s son John spotted the 13 unauthorised withdrawals, all for £300, and all from the machine at the Barclays branch in Courtenay Street, Newton Abbot.

The bank cancelled the card, which was swallowed by the machine when it was used for a 14th time on February 27 last year. The bank has refunded the stolen money.

Howarth-Podesta, aged 54, of Singmoor Farm, Bovey Tracey, denies having a bank card for the use in fraud, 13 offences of fraud and one of attempted fraud.

William Parkhill, prosecuting, told Exeter Crown Court Mrs Marwick is in her 90s and in poor health, which means she receives care from a local firm called Olive Branch.

He said police recovered still images from the bank’s CCTV of eight of the withdrawals, all between January 27 and February 27 last year.

All but one showed a woman wearing a coat with a hood which hid her face but the other offered a partial view of the face. This was used by police for an appeal on Facebook and the local media.

Mr Parkhill said John Marwick identified Howarth-Podesta from the image and she herself contacted the police and confirmed she had been a carer for Mrs Marwick.

Howarth-Podesta denied taking the card and told the jury there had been a break-in at Mrs Marwick’s house late in 2014 which was never reported to the police.

She said: ’One day I arrived and the front door was open. I went into Eleni’s room and she was laid across the bed with her coat on. She said someone had been in the house.

’I checked to see if her son John was there but he was at work.

’I told him about it later and left it up to him whether to call the police.’

She said she became aware of the image posted by police on Facebook when her daughter sent it to her. She said it was not her and denied it was her coat in the picture.

She said: ’I did not take the card and I did not make any of the withdrawals. I never wore the hood on my coat because I do not like fur. I took it off and gave it to my dog to play with.’

Howarth-Podesta said records from the care agency showed she was at other clients’ homes at the times when money was withdrawn.

The trial continues.