East Lothian carer crashed car into house and posted videos of elderly woman on Snapchat

A carer who crashed a car into a house and lied about being sacked from her job has been banned from working in the profession.

Toni Higgins was convicted at Edinburgh Sheriff Court of driving without care and attention before careering over garden rocks and colliding with a house in East Lothian in July 2020.

The care assistant then failed to provide officers with breath specimens at the police station.

In 2019, Higgins was found to have taken a video of a vulnerable resident sitting on a staff member’s knee at Randolph Hill Nursing Home in North Berwick.

She then took a video of herself lying on a resident’s bed and captioned it “easy dayz” before posting it on Snapchat.

Higgins, who was previously dismissed from a job at Carr Gomm social care charity in October 2018, was sacked from her role at the nursing home.

She then tried to get jobs at other care homes but was caught lying on her application forms.

In an application for Bluebird Care in April 2019, she said she had left Carr Gomm due to “bad management and wage” despite the fact she had been dismissed.

She said she had left Randolph Hill because she preferred “care at home” when in reality she had been fired.

Higgins continued to lie on applications for Allied Healthcare and Mears Care Scotland Ltd – where she also lied about having pending criminal charges and that she was subject to an ongoing investigation by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).

A report by the SSSC outlined that between August 2018 and December 2020, four social services employers raised concerns about her.

The report states that Higgins behaviour “showed disregard for the law and disregard for the safety of others”.

It adds “You took a video of a resident while they were sat on the lap of another staff member and posted this video, and another video of yourself lying on a resident’s bed, on social media.

“Your actions amount to a failure to respect AA’s dignity and privacy and a general failure to respect service users and the fact that you were working within their home.

“Your actions raise concerns about your attitude and values. You have shown very little insight.”

Higgins was struck off the SSSC register after it was found providing a warning would not be suitable due to the behaviour being “serious” and a warning “would give no protection to service users or the public.”