A husband and wife have been jailed for six months after being caught on camera mistreating an 88-year-old woman they were employed to care for. Viorel Constantin, 28, was filmed poking the victim's nose and pulling her head from side to side, while his wife Cristina-Alexandra Constantin, 26, watched without intervening or using a hoist to move her.
The abuse was discovered after the woman's son installed a hidden camera in her bedroom due to concerns that carers were not washing her properly. The footage was reported to Midas Care, the care provider, and then to Cambridgeshire Police.
At Cambridge Magistrates Court, the couple pleaded guilty to wilfully neglecting a person without capacity. They were sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to pay £865 in fines. The victim's son described seeing the carers 'throwing her from one side of the bed to the other as if she were a sack of potatoes'.
In a statement, he said: 'I saw footage of supposed carers pulling and pushing her nose, having a laugh at her expense... Anyone working in a caring profession should care for others in the same way they would for their own loved one.' He added that he hoped the case would serve as a warning to other carers.
