JAILED: New Cross Hospital healthcare assistant stole thousands from seriously ill patients
A healthcare assistant who stole more than £9,000 from the terminally ill and patients with dementia has been jailed for two years and eight months.
Marie Taylor stole from five people being treated in the acute medical unit at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital between March and November last year.
Wallets and purses with bank cards inside were taken from close to their beds while the targeted individuals had either been moved away for treatment or were asleep and in no condition to notice that the item was missing.
Two of the victims have since passed away.
The total stolen was £9,312.70, while Taylor also tried to take a further £3,348.77.
The 32-year-old thief used one of the cards to try to book a £3,000-plus holiday for her family on Greek island of Zante but the bid backfired when Thomas Cook staff spotted the card she used had somebody else's name on it.
Suspected
Banks suspected that some of the cards had been used fraudulently but any warning letters sent to those involved are likely to have remained unopened since the victims were seriously unwell in hospital.
Mr Jason Aris, prosecuting, said in November last year the matter came to light when the daughter of a victim contacted the police to tell them her 84-year-old father's bank card had been used while he was receiving chemotherapy for cancer in the unit.
The victim was in hospital between November 2 and 3 and on the second day his daughter received a call from her father's bank to say his card had been used at McDonald's and Sainsbury's in Bentley Bridge as well as £394.06 spent online.
