A vicar's wife has been jailed for 10 months for stealing £6,400 from an elderly woman with learning difficulties.

Ann Smale, 43, was working as a home carer for Shirley Spiess, 80, when she took £6,400 of her money from cash machines over 18 months.

Smale had been pretending to be out buying essential goods for Spiess.

Her employers reported her to police after they noticed the unauthorised withdrawls.

Smale, from Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire, is married to the Rev Simon Smale, Vicar of Fylingdales and Hawsker. Also a chartered accountant, he advises the church on finances. He was ordained in 2011.

Smale, who had a previous conviction for theft and attempted fraud in 1999 for trying to cash a forged cheque, said she had "no explanation at all" for the crime, the BBC reported.

Recorder Mark McKone told Smale: "The strange feature of this case is that the money was not needed by you and it seems you have not spent the money on high living. But the public expects that carers who steal from the elderly are sent to prison."