Care Worker Struck Off After Secret Footage Showed Her Threatening Bedbound Dementia Patient

A care worker has been removed from the professional register after hidden camera footage captured her mocking and intimidating an elderly, bedbound man living with dementia during an intimate care session at a care home in Inverness.

Amina Sani was found to have threatened the 81-year-old resident with police action and warned him that he could be hit when he became agitated at the prospect of being showered against his wishes. The incidents took place at Castlehill Care Home on 10 April last year and only emerged after the resident's daughter, Su Christie, installed a concealed camera in his room because she was worried about the standard of his care.

The footage, which ran for more than 20 minutes, was subsequently broadcast as part of a BBC documentary examining conditions at the home, in which relatives accused the facility of "cruelty" and "neglect". A Scottish Social Services Council misconduct hearing was shown clips in which Sani repeatedly told the man he was going to be showered, prompting him to scream "no" and "leave me alone" before swearing at her and a second carer. The pair could be seen laughing during the exchange.

The panel ruled that Sani told the resident words to the effect of "We will call the police and they will take you to court", and, referring to a male cleaner, asked whether he thought "that man is going to hit you". She also pulled the duvet off him without warning, which the hearing heard left him distressed and agitated. Sani then carried out the man's intimate personal care while a cleaner held his arms down.

Speaking after the judgment, Christie said the recording showed her father's distress escalating throughout the encounter, with no attempt by staff to calm him or de-escalate the situation. She described him as a confused 81-year-old man living with dementia who was frightened and did not understand what was happening. Christie said watching the footage was devastating and left her in shock, explaining that while she already knew there were problems with his care, she had not expected to witness anything of that nature. She said the experience was very distressing to watch.

The hearing was told that the resident, a former merchant navy crewman, had carried a lifelong fear of showers linked to a childhood trauma — a detail his daughter gave in evidence. According to the panel's findings, Sani showed no kindness or compassion towards him at any point during the recorded period, and at one stage she and a colleague laughed in response to something he said or did. The panel concluded this did not appear to be laughing with the resident but was more disrespectful in character.

Delivering the judgment, hearing chairman Iain Burke said the incidents amounted to a significant abuse of trust and power, and that Sani had demonstrated neither insight nor remorse. He said her attitude and behaviour were fundamentally incompatible with registration as a social care worker. He acknowledged submissions from her legal representative that she had been let down by her employer and that there was little doubt institutional failure had occurred, but stressed that none of the failures highlighted absolved her of personal responsibility as a registered social care worker. The panel also noted that she had failed to use any de-escalation techniques and found that the resident had suffered harm and that his dignity had not been respected.

Burke added that the panel believed Sani's treatment of the man was not something that could be remediated through training, because it reflected her underlying attitude. Her legal representative had told the hearing that she wished to apologise to the family and argued that she had not been properly trained in what was her first job in the UK, having come to the country from Nigeria.

The care home's owner, Morar Living, said in a statement that it had acted promptly once concerns were raised and rejected as untrue Sani's claim that she had not received proper training. Castlehill, which has since been renamed Morar Highland, was graded "good" in its most recent care inspection. The BBC previously reported that watchdog inspectors had noted progress on improvements at the home.

Christie, who moved her father to a different home shortly after the incident, said the decision to strike Sani off was the right one. She acknowledged that the panel had commented on institutional failures, but emphasised that the hearing concerned Sani's own personal accountability. She said the outcome sends a message that individual responsibility matters, and that people living with dementia in care settings should be treated with respect and dignity.

The case highlights broader questions about the regulation and oversight of social care workers, particularly those in their first UK post, and about how quickly employers respond when families raise alarms. It also underscores the growing role that covert filming by relatives plays in exposing poor practice behind closed doors, and the weight such evidence can carry in professional misconduct proceedings. For families with loved ones in care, the ruling may serve as a reminder that individual workers, as well as the institutions that employ them, can be held to account when standards fall short.