A BELLIGERENT pensioner who stole an 87-year-old woman’s savings while she was in hospital told a sheriff she had been unable to repay the money because she treated herself to a new scooter.

Elizabeth Needs had been ordered by Perth Sheriff Court to repay the £1,200 she stole from Bunty Farrand while the octogenarian was having her leg amputated.

But upon her return to court, Needs explained she “forgot” to pay and had bought the scooter and other “stuff” for herself.

Outlining her reasoning to Sheriff William Wood, Needs said: “I forgot all about it. I just don’t have the money because I have had to buy stuff for myself. I am disabled, right. I have also got a heart condition now. I have had to buy myself a scooter so I can get about more than what I am.

“Without a scooter I would have to stay indoors all the time. They are not cheap things to buy. How much do you think I get a week?”

Sheriff Wood told the pensioner: “What about the money you took from your victim? Are you going to pay it? The alternative is prison.”

Needs replied: “I might get better health [care] in there. I can’t get near my own doctor.”

The case was deferred for Needs to seek legal advice.

Needs also claimed her victim owed her a washing machine which had been stored in her shed.

Needs befriended Miss Farrand before taking a four-figure sum from her bank account while she was laid up in hospital.

Needs, 61, claimed she used part of the money she had stolen to decorate the living room in her victim’s home as a surprise for her when she got out of hospital.

Sheriff William Wood had ordered Needs to pay compensation and also placed her on supervision for six months as part of a community payback order in December 2014. The court heard nearly £3,000 was taken from Miss Farrand’s bank account and a chunk of the money was used to paint her living room and provide her with a new bed.

Needs was charged with stealing £2,800 from her former friend, but admitted taking the lesser sum of £1,200 after the Crown accepted she had spent part of that money on the redecorating work.

Needs, who befriended her vulnerable victim while her own father lived next door to Miss Farrand in Blairgowrie, admitted stealing the £1,200 from Miss Farrand, who lived next to her father in Blairgowrie, in 2013.

Outside court, Miss Farrand’s second cousin Elaine Macdonald, 58, said: “I think she should go to the prison because of what she has done.

“Her father lived next door and she got to know her that way. She had been looking after Bunty and collecting her pension while she was in hospital.

“She befriended all of the old folk in the area. Bunty was in hospital for three months getting her leg amputated. She had given this woman her trust and the money was taken without her family knowing.

“She totally betrayed her trust. Bunty has been left devastated by this. She trusted somebody and has been greatly let down. She won’t go out on her own now.

“It was all of her pension and savings. She spotted something was wrong when she came out of the hospital after three months.”