A FORMER nursing home matron who rifled the bank accounts of patients has been ordered to pay more than £134,000 compensation.

Susie Forbes was released at the end of last year from an 18-month jail sentence. She had been found guilty of 24 counts of theft, false accounting and obtaining property by deception after a month-long trial.

Forbes, aged 54, of Oak Tree Cottage, Hanley Swan, also took her case to the Court of Appeal in London but lost. She was matron and managing director of Pirton Grange in Pirton before being investigated and sacked.

Forbes' barrister Abigail Nixon did not oppose the compensation claim.