Fraud victim's lawyer calls for former health aide to go to jail for nine months

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

A FORMER health care aide who stole more than $80,000 from a nursing home patient who was dying of cancer is waiting to learn if she is going to jail or will be allowed to serve a sentence under house arrest.
Marilyn Dayrit, 50, has pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000.
At a hearing last month, a Crown prosecutor urged provincial court Judge Wanda Garreck to sentence Dayrit to nine months in jail, while Dayrit's lawyer recommended she be allowed to serve a nine-month conditional sentence in the community.
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A former health care aide at Holy Family Home personal care home stole more than $80,000 from a nursing home patient who was dying of cancer.
'It's hard to imagine a more vulnerable person than someone who is in a personal care home because they require around-the-clock care at the end of her life,' said Crown attorney Eric Hachinski.
Dayrit was a longtime health care aide at Holy Family Home on Aberdeen Avenue when in November 2023 she stole a chequebook belonging to the 88-year-old victim. Over the next five months, she forged 30 cheques totalling $81,500 and deposited the money into her own account.
The fraud was discovered after the victim's niece, who had power of attorney and was concerned about her finances, was provided access to her banking records.
'Frankly, if (the niece) had been granted access earlier, perhaps this could have been detected and stopped earlier,' Hachinski said. The niece and a bank employee reviewed the records and discovered the forged cheques, the largest of them in the amount of $10,000.
Bank security video captured Dayrit depositing the cheques into her own account.
Court heard Dayrit's employment was terminated for an unrelated reason on Feb. 1, 2024, after which she continued to cash more forged cheques for another two months before her eventual arrest last October.
'This was not a one-off. This was a continuing pattern over a period of months,' Hachinski said.
Police tried to interview the victim, who has since died, but she was unable to understand their questions, Hachinski said.
At the time of the fraud, Dayrit was the sole breadwinner for her family, and was supporting her recently unemployed husband, three teenage children, one of whom is disabled, and her mother-in-law, who has early-onset dementia, said defence lawyer Daniel Cleto.
'At the time, they were experiencing a very tight financial situation,' Cleto said.
Dayrit also spent some of the victim's money on gambling, using her trips to city casinos as an 'outlet for her stress and anxiety,' Cleto said.
'She acknowledges to a gambling addiction,' he said.
Garreck pushed back against the assertion Dayrit had a gambling addiction, saying there was no evidence before her that Dayrit gambled prior to defrauding the victim.
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'It's unclear to me whether she is paying off gambling debts or whether gambling only became an issue after she started taking the money,' Garreck said.
Dayrit and her husband, who was unaware of his wife's actions prior to her arrest, have sold their home to repay the victim and the family now lives in an apartment, Cleto said.
'They are trying to make things right,' he said.
Dayrit will return to court for sentencing on July 9.
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Dean PritchardCourts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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