A woman has been sentenced to community work and reparation
for dishonestly obtaining nearly $2000 from a Dunedin rest
home resident.
Jonnelle Dawn Watt, 42, a then activities assistant and
cleaner at the rest-home, faced eight charges of using a
document for pecuniary advantage in 2010.
The charges were to have been the subject of a Dunedin
District Court jury trial last week. But on the day the trial
was scheduled to begin, Watt pleaded guilty.
The summary said the 82-year-old victim was a double amputee
who suffered from variable memory loss.
Watt took the woman's cashflow card from her purse.
On seven occasions between August 31 and September 23, 2010,
she used it to withdraw $1520 cash from the woman's bank
account.
On August 24, a week before the cashflow card offending
began, Watt took a cheque belonging to the woman and
completed it for an amount of $448. Two days later, she
deposited the cheque into her personal bank account.
Watt entered her pleas before Judge Stephen O'Driscoll.
She was convicted, sentenced to 150 hours' community work,
and made immediate payment of the $1968 reparation sought.
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