An Indian-origin nursing house worker used to be fined SGD 4,000 on Monday after she pleaded in charge previous to robbery and dishonest an aged resident in Singapore.
Latha Narayanan, 59, stole an ATM card belonging to an aged resident she used to be assigned to seem after and withdrew SGD1,000 in money. She extensively utilized the cardboard to shop for meals and toiletries at a grocery store.
Two different an identical fees towards Latha had been considered throughout sentencing, in line with a record through The Straits Occasions.
The court docket heard that during 2019, Latha, who used to be a well being assistant at Woodlands Care House, used to be assigned to handle the sufferer, a 65-year-old guy.
He died in January 2021, in line with court docket paperwork.
The court docket heard that someday in 2019, the person forgot the PIN quantity for his ATM card and Latha accompanied him to the financial institution to acquire a brand new code after an ordinary clinic talk over with.
The person gained his new PIN quantity within the presence of Latha and positioned his ATM card within the pocket of his telephone quilt. He then passed the instrument to her for safekeeping.
On November 21, 2019, Latha used the cardboard entrusted to her to withdraw SGD1,000 in money, committing robbery, mentioned the prosecution.
She then used the cardboard on Nov 25 to pay for SGD73 price of meals and toiletries at a grocery store in Woodlands, dishonestly inducing group of workers on the retailer to make the transaction.
The offences got here to gentle when the aged guy reported to the police on November 27 that he misplaced his ATM card and that unauthorised withdrawals were comprised of his checking account.
This used to be now not Latha’s first brush with the regulation. In 2017, she used to be fined SGD600 for property-related thefts, in line with court docket paperwork.
Looking for a positive of SGD4,000, the prosecution mentioned that the overall quantity fascinated with Latha’s case used to be SGD1,870, noting that restitution used to be made within the type of a donation to the Singapore Most cancers Society on Feb 9 this yr.
In mitigation, defence legal professional Ashwin Ganapathy, who additionally sought a positive of SGD4,000, mentioned Latha used to be dedicated to creating restitution regardless of wanting months to assemble the budget.
He instructed the court docket in an previous consultation that Latha were a sufferer of bullying in her early life and continued abuse in her marriage.
She used to be additionally abused through the sufferer whom she cared for on the nursing house, Ashwin added.
The penalty for robbery and dishonest is a prison time period of as much as 3 years and a positive.