A WOMAN who admitted breaking into a house and stealing clothes, footwear, purses, a handbag, perfume and toys from inside was a domestic worker for the NHS in Helensburgh, the Advertiser understands.

Lynn McNicol pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge of theft by housebreaking at a property in Alexandria.

McNicol, 34, admitted kicking in the door of the house along with co-accused Ashley Mundie, 30, and stealing items brought home by the householder only a few hours earlier.

At Dumbarton Sheriff Court on October 1, McNicol’s solicitor said her client was a domestic worker employed by the NHS.

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McNicol, of Whiteford Avenue in Dumbarton, was ordered to do 250 hours of unpaid community work within eight months as a punishment for the crime, and will be supervised by a social worker until April 2021.

Mundie, an inmate at Polmont prison near Falkirk, was jailed for 19 months.

The court hearing four weeks ago was told that McNicol and Mundie’s actions had left the householder too terrified to return to her property.

After a report of the pair’s court appearance was published in the Advertiser's sister title, the Dumbarton and Vale of Leven Reporter, McNicol got in touch to say she had been suspended from her job “because they seen your big juicy story”.

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She said: “Just to let you know I’m suing yous. I have lost my job because of the garbage you [print]. Gony get ma lawyer, take you lot to the cleaners. Scum.”

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said they had no record of McNicol’s name on their payroll.

However, a source said she had actually been employed as a domestic worker in Helensburgh, and would therefore have been employed by NHS Highland.

A spokesman for the Argyll and Bute health and social care partnership, which runs NHS Highland services in the Helensburgh area, said: “Due to staff confidentiality it would not be appropriate for us to comment.”

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