Judge ‘mystified’ by caregiver’s on-going denials
A judge has admitted being “mystified” by a caregiver’s continuing denials that she stole more than $3500 from the bank account of a 79-year-old dementia patient.
The Nurse Maude caregiver, Yvonne Beck, 48, was found guilty of 13 charges of dishonestly using a document – the patient’s eft-pos card – to get cash and pay for groceries for herself.
Christchurch District Court Raoul Neave said at Beck’s sentencing that the jury verdicts had been inevitable.
She continued to deny responsibility “which I still find a little mystifying”, the judge said as he sentenced her to five months of home detention with an order that she undertake counselling as directed.
“Clearly this offending was driven by something which we haven’t yet discovered,” he said. It would not hurt for that issue to be explored further in the counselling.
Beck paid back some of the money when she was originally confronted about the discrepancies in the bank account, and she has since provided a bank cheque of $3000 for the rest.
Judge Neave reduced her sentence for the full payment of reparation.
Defence counsel Clare Yardley said she regarded the offending as “inexplicable”. There was no evidence of extravagance or financial stress in the family. “Everything appeared to be perfectly managed.”
She said Beck had been struggling emotionally with the prosecution process.
Prosecutor Stephen Burdes said the Crown was neutral about whether home detention should be granted. But he said there had been no acceptance of responsibility or apology to the victim’s family. The failure to accept responsibility meant there was limited scope for rehabilitation.
The home detention will be served at a Rolleston address.
Category: Focus
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