AN ASSISTANT director of nursing who stole almost €10,000 from four elderly clients of the day centre where she worked, told a court yesterday that she felt such shame she could no longer walk down the street in her home town.
The accused, a clinical nurse manager at the HSE-run Willow Grove mental health day centre and workshop in Boyle, Co Roscommon, “prompted” elderly people into withdrawing huge sums from their bank accounts which she kept for herself.
She also stole the savings of two elderly people which were kept in the safe in the centre, Roscommon Circuit Court heard.
Described as a former “pillar of society”, Paula Byrne, of Cashel Park, Castlerea, Co Roscommon, a qualified psychiatric nurse, pleaded guilty to nine counts of theft totalling €9,600 over a 2½-year period from January 2005. She told gardaí she stole the money because she was “in dire need of cash” and she had always intended to repay it. The court was told that on one occasion the accused brought an elderly man into the AIB bank in Boyle, “prompted” him to withdraw €4,000 from his account, allowed him to keep “a maximum of €200” and kept the remainder.
Byrne was in charge of nine nursing staff, five domestic staff and 30 clients at Willow Grove, which is attached to the Plunkett Home, a community nursing unit in Boyle, at the time of the offences.
Judge Anthony Kennedy was told the four injured parties included one elderly man who died earlier this year and from whom the accused stole €2,900.
Det Garda Gerard Barry, who investigated the complaints, said Byrne had started working at Willow Grove in November 2004 and a short time later clear discrepancies arose in the accounts of some clients. In a statement to Det Barry, the defendant said she had been tempted to take money from the account of an elderly Boyle man, John Gilhooly, who attended the centre because she was “in dire need of cash”.
She had gone to the local AIB bank with him on February 9th, 2005, intending to get him to withdraw money that she would keep. She prompted him to withdraw €4,000, gave him at most €200 and kept the rest.
On another occasion she got him to withdraw €1,000 out of which he kept €100 and she got the rest. She had stolen €5,100 altogether from Mr Gilhooly and she told Det Barry she sometimes gave him cash because she felt guilty.
The court was told that in the same way she prompted another patient, the late Vincent Chapman, to make four withdrawals totalling €2,900. She also stole €600 from an elderly woman’s savings, which was kept in the safe in the centre, to pay a large telephone bill. She also took €1,000 from the savings of an elderly man.
Judge Kennedy was told the defendant had repaid €6,000 and a further €3,600 was handed over in court yesterday. He imposed a two-year suspended sentence, saying Ms Byrne had suffered punishment because of the impact on her employability, the public disgrace and the social loss of face.