A MALE care assistant from Headley Down who pleaded guilty to ill treating three patients with dementia at the Surrey Heights Care Home in Wormley has been handed an 18-month community order and will undertake 200 hours of unpaid work.

Paul Balea, 37, of Birch Road, will be on curfew for three months. He will also pay £250 to each of his three victims and will pay a £60 victim surcharge.

Balea was arrested on suspicion of neglect after Surrey Police officers attended the care home, run by CHD Living, on December 23, 2014, following a report of a concern for safety.

One of the patients he was accused of mistreating has since died. Balea pleaded guilty in January and was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court last Friday. The court heard the Romanian man came to England six years ago and worked at the care home for five years, at first as a kitchen porter, and had received “relatively little training” when he was put in charge of residents.

Sentencing Balea, Judge Stephen Climie said his behaviour was “despicable and disgusting”.