A carer has been cleared of stealing almost £4,000 from a frail 91-year-old widow after telling a jury she was not the woman who was caught on CCTV withdrawing the money from a cashpoint.

Carolyn Howarth-Podesta was acquitted after telling Exeter Crown Court the card and Pin number may have been taken in a break-in at the victim’s home.

She denied being 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.

Ms Howarth-Podesta, aged 54, of Singmoor Farm, Bovey Tracey, denied having a bank card for the use in fraud, 13 offences of fraud and one of attempted fraud. She was found not guilty of all charges.

The prosecution alleged Ms Howarth-Podesta was working as a carer when she 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 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.

Ms 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.’

Ms Howarth-Podesta said records from the care agency showed she was at other clients’ homes at the times when money was withdrawn.