Jillian Marie Moore, 37, knew her 77-year-old victim for 13 years, the Dunedin District Court heard last week.
The pair became friends and Moore began assisting the woman with transport to various appointments.
On January 7, the victim became ill and was admitted to hospital — then a rest-home.
Moore had access to the woman’s eftpos card and used it to buy any items the pensioner might have needed during her stay.
The victim grew concerned when she noticed her funds were rapidly disappearing.
Moore reassured the woman she "would never steal money from her", court documents said.
When police investigated, they found Moore had made a large number of unauthorised personal purchases from various stores around Dunedin.
A cash amount of $3000 was also withdrawn, bringing the total of stolen funds to $5473.
"This offending was mean," Judge Jim Large said.
Judge Large noted the woman had a conviction for theft in a special relationship from 2005, calling her offending "exactly the same".
"This would indicate an underlying dishonest trait that you need to deal with," he said.
Moore told police she was remorseful for her actions and had taken the funds due to her own "financial hardship".
"I don’t doubt your 77-year-old victim had her own financial stresses ... she was effectively watching her pennies," the judge said.
"You had no right whatsoever to take this elderly person’s money ... people that age do not need that amount of stress."
Moore was convicted of dishonestly using a document and was sentenced to four months’ community detention along with 12 months’ supervision.
She was also ordered to repay the $5473 at a rate of $20 a week.
