For stealing about £20,000 from the savings of vulnerable residents in the United Kingdom, a Nigerian woman care home worker, Abiola Akinremi, 41, has been sentenced to seven months in jail.
Akinremi, from Tilbury in Essex, had pleaded guilty to the three-count charge bordering on fraud and abuse of position.
It was revealed that she took advantage of her position as an administrator at the facility, Bostall House in Abbey Wood, Southeast London to make dozens of unauthorized withdrawals from the bank accounts of patients.
Akinremi, a mother of three, was jailed at the Old Bailey for defrauding vulnerable patients at the care home, some of whom are detained under the Mental Health Act.
Those without family support usually hand over control of their finances to administrators and carers.
The convict first started stealing from residents when she needed money for childcare, and continued the fraud to “fund her own lifestyle”, the court was told.
Sentencing Akinremi, Judge Angela Rafferty KC said: “This was a repeated and planned course of conduct and a very serious breach of trust of vulnerable people.”
Prosecutor Robert Levack said: “People who live at the home are all vulnerable, they have various conditions and are detained under the Mental Health Act or other legislation. It is a 24-hour care facility.
“They are not allowed to leave Bostall House without a member of staff or a family member. Some have their financial affairs looked after by the home.”
Investigators were brought in when concerns about Akinremi’s activities were raised in November 2018.
They found £43,000 was missing from residents’ bank accounts, including £32,000 from one victim.
Akinremi had denied fraud until the first day of her trial, insisting that other staff at the home were trying to “pin the blame” on her.
She ultimately admitted taking £19,650 over the course of eight months from three residents, and continues to say others at the home were involved in wrongdoing.
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