AN adopted daughter has been jailed for nine months for stealing £48,000 from her dementia-suffering mother, to pay for clothes, a holiday to the Maldives and flying lessons.

Anna Henderson-Bentley, 36, of London Road, Chippenham, had admitted four counts of theft at a previous hearing.

Newcastle Crown Court on Monday was told the three-times married Henderson-Bentley obtained power of attorney over Hildegard Telfer's affairs after the widow, now aged 78, began to show signs of Alzheimer's disease.

She admitted cashing in more than £4,300 of shares, two insurance policies worth £22,000 and £10,000, and stealing £10,000 in cash between June 1998 and September 1999.

The money represented almost all of her mother's available assets, the judge was told.

The thefts came to light when Barclays Bank became suspicious with arrears on a second mortgage which the defendant had taken out on her mother's home in the Northumberland village of Wooler.

Michael Hodson, prosecuting, said: "The aunt of the defendant describes her as very manipulative of her mother and found she was abusive."

Mr Hodson said after she gained power of attorney in 1997, the defendant no longer visited her mother or sent her Christmas or birthday cards.

He added: "Very soon after, the defendant set about liquidating a number of her mother's assets and accumulating the proceeds for her own benefit."

Henderson-Bentley spent £2,000 on a holiday and a further £2,000 on clothes.

Christopher Knox, defending, said the case painted an extremely unattractive picture of his client and it was inevitable there would be some demonisation of somebody who had behaved in this way.

But he said Henderson-Bentley had suffered a mental disorder and has "manifest insecurities."

He said she intended to repay her mother with the proceeds of selling her share of her marital home in Chippenham.

Mrs Telfer, who has no other children, made a will, and the defendant was the sole beneficiary, Mr Knox said, so she would have inherited the money eventually.

Judge Esmond Faulks sentencing her said: "What you did was nothing less than wicked. You took advantage of your legal position to deceive financial institutions and defraud your mother. In the twilight years of people's lives they get particularly worried by financial concerns and that should never have been the case with your mother as she was quite well prepared."

He ordered the defendant to repay her mother £36,000 from the proceeds of selling the house which she co-owns.