A WOMAN'S words from beyond the grave helped snare a cleaner who stole from her after she was struck by terminal cancer.

Clare Robertson, of Yoker, was hired by Mairi Finlayson to help look after the house she shared with her husband in Glasgow's Jordanhill.

A few weeks after Robertson started, the 78 year-old noticed two sentimental diamond rings had vanished along with £150 in cash.

She alerted her daughter, Lorna Smith, who used Robertson to tidy her own Jordanhill home.

The 45 year-old then discovered her son's birthday money, as well as a chequebook, had gone missing from her house.

Robertson was confronted - but shamelessly stated it was "always the cleaner" who was blamed for items going missing.

Robertson, 44, denied the crimes during a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court - but was convicted by a jury of her peers on Friday.

Mairi sadly passed before she could give evidence. But, the ill pensioner earlier give a statement to police which helped secure justice.

Robertson faces jail for the second time after being locked up previously for copycat crimes in 2017.

She was guilty then of stealing £20,000 of jewellery and cash from upmarket houses she worked at.

This latest court case heard how Lorna asked Robertson to help clean her parents home in April 2017 shortly after her mum started chemotherapy.

Robertson had been working at the house for several weeks when things went missing, and the family became suspicious of her.

Mairi's statement to police, which was read out in court, said: "I placed my rings in a box in my bedroom.

"I then noticed they were missing. Five days later, I told Clare and she said she would keep an eye out for them. My daughter and I searched the house.

"We then found one of the rings in a spare bedroom where it had never been placed before."

The OAP later discovered £150 of Turkish Lira was also gone from the same drawer the rings had been in.

Mairi's daughter, Lorna, told the court that birthday cash her son had been given had disappeared after Robertson had been at her house.

She said: "I counted it before he left for a trip away - Clare was there that day. When he came back and went to buy something, he realised he was £40 short."

A chequebook belonging to her husband, Wallace, 55, was also missing.

He told the court: "It went missing and, when I was doing my accounts, I noticed £870 was taken from my bank account that I couldn’t make sense of."

Following the verdict, Sheriff Joseph Platt said: "I didn’t think the victims exaggerated. They were credible and reliable.”

Speaking outside court, Lorna said "justice had been done" for her late mum, adding: "I cannot believe someone would stoop that low to steal from an elderly woman suffering from terminal cancer. It is beyond shocking. I just hope that woman never works in anyone's house again where there's anything of value."

Her father Donald, 79, said: "My wife is unfortunately not here...the money does not matter, it is the sentimental value of the rings. They were quite valuable and had five diamonds in each. My wife would never have sold them."

Robertson's bail was continued and she will learn her fate next month after being convicted of the latest two theft charges.

She was previously jailed for 16 months in December 2017 after she plundered goods from a number of upmarket houses.