A mental health care home assistant manager "lied and lied" when caught stealing from a vulnerable resident - even plundering the victim's savings after he died.
Uganda-born Geoffrey Mutenga, 37, who has ambitions to become a pharmacist, tried to convince bosses the money was for a memorial bench and for a photographer to take portrait pictures of the residents.
The single dad-of-two, of Beaumaris Gardens, Upper Norwood, who entered the UK in 2002 on a student visa, pleaded guilty to stealing £800 from Joseph Donovan between September 9, 2011 and January 18, last year.
The prosecution dropped charges of stealing £600 from another resident.
Croydon Crown Court heard Mutenga was employed at Care Home, 55 Beulah Road, Thornton Heath, (pic.bottom) but was sacked and now receives jobseekers allowance and housing benefit.
The pharmacy graduate, who has permanent leave to remain in the UK, was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for twelve months and ordered to perform 150 hours community service work.
"You literally dipped into someone else's bank account and lied and lied consistently when it was found out," Judge Ruth Downing told Mutenga.
"I am well aware of the sensitivity concerning fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers signing over their finances to care homes."
Mutenga forged his boss's signature on cheques for £300 and then £500 and was caught on a bank's CCTV cashing the second sum two weeks after Mr. Donovan, who was in his late-sixties, passed away.
The victim was described as a "severely disabled man" by prosecutor Mr. Joel Smith.
Mutenga was quizzed by police and immediately told them a pack of lies.
"He said he had spoken about a memorial bench and had taken the cheque and cashed it, but lost the money." explained Mr. Smith. "He said he had taken the first cheque to make a payment to a photographer to come to the home.
"He even produced a receipt from a photographer , but when police attended the residential address there was no reply and telephone calls and emails were not replied to."
Mutenga will soon be starting a masters in pharmacy at Brighton University, but he has not even got his degree certificate from Kingston University yet because he still owes them £2,000.
The conviction for stealing from a vulnerable victim in breach of trust also casts doubt on whether Mutenga could ever successfully register with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
"The financial pressure he was under at the time was seismic," said Mr. Ignatius Fessall, defending. "That is the reason he dipped his hand into the account of Mr. Donovan.
"He is very, very sorry. His shame and remorse is genuine."
Judge Downing concluded: "Mr. Mutenga lied pretty consistently about where the money went and it took him some time to 'fess up to it.
"He even told the probation officer he did it out of the goodness of his own heart and says he did it to bring Mr. Donovan's capital below the threshold for claiming benefits."
The care home have compensated Mr. Donovan's beneficiaries, but no order was made against the defendant, who was told by Judge Downing: "You're a man that plainly lives on a financial knife-edge."
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