Nurse Steals From Dying Patient

A nurse stole a dying war veteran’s wallet to pay a telephone bill, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court heard. Veronica Harold, 47, admitted theft and fraud by falsely using 83-year-old Albert Davies’s Barclays Bank card to pay a £248 BT bill.

She took the wallet while it was inside his bedside locker at Fazakerley Hospital in Liverpool last August. Chairman of the Bench, Deputy District Judge Rod Ross, told Harold she could be jailed when sentenced next month.

Mr Davies, of Norris Green, was admitted to the hospital in July last year, having lost a lot of weight. He died of pneumonia 10 days later.His family became suspicious after discovering his bank card was used while he was in hospital and after he died.

Jacqui Scrivens, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was a nursing assistant on the ward where Mr Davies was being treated. On 3 August she paid a BT telephone bill for £284.58 relating to her former home. She was arrested and interviewed. She stated she did take the card but didn’t remember it and had paid a bill.

“She said that one of her sons died in 2000 and she had another son who put her under enormous pressure due to drug debts. She said she was emotional. She expressed regret and sorrow, knowing it was wrong, and said she would pay back the money.” Ms Harold has no previous convictions.

A spokesman for Aintree University Hospitals NHS Trust said: “The trust confirms that Veronica Harold is an employee of the trust and has been suspended from duty pending the outcome of court proceedings and the trust’s own investigations.”