A healthcare worker in the United Kingdom stole the credit card of a recently deceased 83-year-old patient, using it to buy herself snacks from a vending machine.
23-year-old healthcare assistant Ayesha Basharat, of Birmingham, England, took the card of a female patient at Heartlands Hospital who had just died just minutes earlier in January.
Authorities say that Basharat used the card to purchase “sweets and drinks” from a vending machine located inside the facility.
Doctors recorded the woman’s time of death at 1:56 p.m. and only 17 minutes after the woman was pronounced dead Basharat used the card to make 6 purchases at the vending machine.
Basharat later admitted to the crimes of theft and fraud by false. She was sentenced in June to serve 2 concurrent 5-month jail terms, both of which were suspended for 18 months.
#CONVICTED | A healthcare assistant working on a Covid ward used a dead patient’s bank card to buy crisps, sweets & fizzy drinks from a hospital vending machine.
Ayesha Basharat took the 83-year-old woman’s card after she passed away on 24 Jan.
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— West Midlands Police (@WMPolice) June 10, 2021