A NURSING assistant accused of stealing two lots of pension money from a disabled woman has been cleared of both charges at Bolton Crown Court.

A jury returned a not guilty verdict to a second charge of theft against Irene Hill after clearing her of a first charge.

The jury had been sent home overnight and was sent out again yesterday to consider its verdict on the second charge.

Hill, a nursing assistant with 19 years experience, had visited the 87-year-old woman at her home to administer eye drops.

Two amounts of pension cash had disappeared from the pensioner's handbag and Hill had been in the house on both occasions.

Hill had visited the woman, who is housebound and partially deaf, at her flat to administer the drops after the woman had a cataract operation.

On the first occasion the pensioner said £168 was missing from her purse, and seven days later the woman said £170 was missing.

Mrs Hill denied she had taken the money from the pensioner and said that on both occasions she had put the drops in her eyes and then left.

Hill, aged 37, a mother of three, of Nandywell, Little Lever, had denied two counts of theft.

A mother of three, she said she was a nursing auxiliary working in the community with 19 years experience.

Hill agreed she had visited the pensioner on June 20 and twice on June 27 last year to administer eye drops. But she said she put drops in the woman's eyes and then left and that sequence of events was the same on every visit.