Carer struck off after embezzling £5,000 from vulnerable patient

A social care worker from Kilmarnock has been struck off after embezzling around £5,000 from a vulnerable patient in their care.

Deborah Biggar was convicted at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in January 2025 of embezzling from an 88-year-old individual living with dementia.

The offence took place on various occasions between 1 September 2020 and 30 August 2021.

At the time of the offence, Biggar was registered as a social care worker with the SSSC.

In a Notice of Decision published on January 22, 2026, the SSSC said the conviction impaired Biggar’s fitness to practise and amounted to a serious breach of trust.

The council found the offence involved dishonesty while acting in a privileged position and caused, or was likely to have caused, “significant financial harm” to a vulnerable service user.

The regulator also noted that the behaviour occurred over an extended period and demonstrated a clear pattern of misconduct. It said Biggar did not engage with the investigation and provided no evidence of insight, reflection or remorse.

The SSSC concluded there was a risk of similar behaviour being repeated and highlighted concerns about potential financial and emotional harm to service users.

The report read: “There is a need to protect service users from potential financial harm. There is a real risk of financial harm being caused if your behaviour were to be repeated.

“There is also a real risk of emotional harm and/or distress being caused to service users if you were to repeat the behaviour.

“The behaviour falls far below the accepted professional standards for a social services worker. There are significant public protection concerns arising from the behaviour.

“We consider the public interest to be high and that the reputation of the profession could be damaged as a result of the behaviour, which is fundamentally incompatible with professional registration.”