Nurse may be jailed for theft from hero

Aug 31 2007 by John Fahey, Liverpool Daily Post

A HOSPITAL nursing assistant from Liverpool stole a dying war veteran’s wallet to pay a phone bill, a court heard yesterday.

Veronica Harold, 47, could now face a jail sentence after she admitted helping herself to 83-year-old Albert Davies’s wallet while it was inside his bedside locker at Fazakerley hospital.

She used the decorated war hero’s Barclays bank card to pay a £284 British Telecom phone bill. Yesterday she admitted theft and fraud by falsely using the card.

An earlier hearing was told Mr Davies’s account was used to buy £49-worth of computer equipment.

At Liverpool Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Deputy District Judge Rod Ross told Harold she could be jailed when sentenced next month.

“I am not ruling out sending this to the Crown Court or custody,” he said.

Mr Davies 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 the pensioner’s bank card was used while he was in hospital and after he died.

Jacqui Scrivens, prosecuting, said Harold, of Heskin Road, Kirkby, was a nursing assistant on the ward where Mr Davies was being treated.

She said: “On August 3, 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 expressed regret and sorrow, knowing it was wrong, and said she would pay back the money.”

Harold has no previous convictions.

Mr Davies, of Norris Green, Liverpool, was conscripted into the Royal Navy when he was 18 and served at sea during World War II.

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre, France’s highest military honour, in recognition of his bravery on D-Day.

Speaking outside court, his niece, Lin Sharkey, said: “We have pursued this case purely for Albert and to get justice for him because he deserved better.

“He was one of the finest men you would have ever met, honest, trustworthy and kind. We were in complete shock to find that someone in such a position of trust and looking after an elderly man could do such a thing, irrespective of her personal circumstances and financial situation.

“We all have financial hardships, but we don’t steal from the dying.”

A spokesman for Aintree University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Fazakerley Hospital, 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.”