A DISABLED Alcester woman has lost her appeal against a conviction for assaulting a carer after the other woman had handed in her resignation.

And the unsuccessful appeal at Warwick Crown Court has more than doubled the amount the case has cost 46-year-old Rebecca Cronin.

She had pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting her carer Linda Knight by beating, but was convicted by magistrates who fined her £110 and ordered her to pay £100 compensation and £200 costs.

Those penalties remain, and Judge Richard Griffith-Jones also ordered Cronin, of Beacon Close, Alcester, to pay the £520 costs of the appeal.

Prosecutor Hugh Williams said the incident took place at Cronin’s home in March last year after Ms Knight handed her a note giving two weeks’ notice that she was resigning.

Ms Knight, who had been Cronin’s carer since November 2013, said that after giving her the letter of resignation she went upstairs to make the bed.

When she came back down Cronin complained that she should give four weeks’ notice, and became agitated and started shouting at her.

“I said that if there was going to be any problem I would leave. She started shouting at me to get out, so I started to put my boots on.

“She was shouting about my work and that I would not work again, and that she would not pay me the money she owed me.”

Ms Knight said Cronin then picked up her bag, opened the door and threw it out into the front garden.

“I was trying to put my boots on by the door, but she was pushing me towards the door, pushing me to the shoulder. She caught my hair which got pulled, but I think that was because she was pushing me. It hurt.”

Asked whether she believed Cronin had deliberately yanked her hair, Ms Knight immediately responded: “No, no, I think it just got caught.”

Putting Cronin’s version of what happened, her barrister Laura Culley suggested that when handed her notice Cronin had said that if she found someone within two weeks, that would be fine, and that it was Ms Knight who had become ‘stand-offish.’

She replied: “No. That did not happen.”

Cronin said that when Ms Knight insisted she would only work for two weeks, whether she had found a replacement or not, she told her to leave straight away – and that when she put her boots on she deliberately wiped them on the sofa, leaving marks.

But when that was put to Ms Knight, she responded: “No, that’s not true. That did not happen.”

Cronin said that because of that, she picked up the carer’s bag and threw it out to get her to leave.

She claimed that Ms Knight had then told her ‘You don’t do that to my bag,’ and had run at her and pushed her to the chest with both hands, causing her to stumble backwards against some drawers in the hallway.

Again Ms Knight told the court: “That is not true.”

She also denied Cronin’s claim that one she was outside and the door had been shut she had started kicking it, shouting that she wanted her money.

And after discussing the evidence of the two women, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones and two magistrates rejected Cronin’s version of what happened and dismissed her appeal.