A carer for a terminally ill man, who stole his bank card and used it to withdraw nearly £3,000 from his account, has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Vasudevan Chetty made seven withdrawals from the account of Neill Cowell, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2013 and has since died, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

Chetty, 39, of The Hemplands, Lowestoft, denied stealing Santander debit cards belonging to Mr Cowell in December 2015 and fraud by using the cards to withdraw money but was convicted of both offences after a three day trial.

He was given a 12 month prison sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work.

Daniel Taylor, prosecuting, told the court that in December 2015 Mr Cowell was receiving regular visits from a number of carers, including Chetty, at his home in Normanston Drive, Lowestoft.

On December 9, 2015, Mr Cowell's bank card was reported missing by his mother and a new card was issued, said Mr Taylor.

When the new card didn't arrive Mr Cowell and his mother went to the bank on December 22 to withdraw some money and were shocked to find there was only £100 left in the account.

A police investigation was started and CCTV footage was obtained which showed Chetty using one of the cards to withdraw money from Mr Cowell's account.

Chetty was arrested on February 14 last year and denied withdrawing money from Mr Cowell's account.

Giving evidence Chetty denied stealing Mr Cowell's bank cards and using them to withdraw money from a cashpoint.

He told the court he had worked for Manorcourt Homecare as a mobile health care assistant since October 15 and had visited Mr Cowell at his home for about a month to help with his medication and preparing meals.

Chetty accepted he had admitted to police officers during an interview in February last year that he was the person seen on CCTV using a cashpoint at Tesco's in Beccles Road.

However, he claimed he had been tired and confused during the interview and that he was now certain the man in the CCTV footage wasn't him.