92-year-old Lionel Cox had moved to Cambridge House, a care facility in Melbourne, from his Fitzroy house in July 2015, where he met nurse Abha Kumar. Within three days of his admission, Ms Kumar was researching avenues for legal advice for the elderly resident to write a will.
This week, Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal banned Ms Kumar from being a registered health care professional and working as an employee, contractor, manager or volunteer for five years. She is also prohibited from working as a personal care worker.
Of particular concern would be the risk of Ms Kumar providing direct or indirect care to residents or clients who did not have family or were otherwise isolated.
During the hearing of disciplinary proceedings against Ms Kumar brought by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, the Tribunal heard that on the day Mr Cox was admitted to Cambridge house, Ms Kumar learned that he had no friends or family and that he owned his own home. She also learned that he had not made a will.
He had told nurses he was only staying 'until the cold months were over'.
Three weeks later, the Tribunal found, she escorted him home in a taxi to collect belongings and cash. Ms Kumar put the cash, $4,500, into her purse and kept it with her until later in the day.
Three days later on 27 July 2015, she purchased a will-kit and she got the staff members to witness Mr Cox’s handwritten will, without disclosing to them that she was named the sole beneficiary to his property that was worth over $1 million.
Throughout the Board’s investigation, Ms Kumar denied she engaged in improper conduct and that she didn’t know Mr Cox’s intentions regarding the will. She said she was surprised to learn he had made her the beneficiary.
However, in the proceedings in VCAT, she admitted that she was aware she would be named as a beneficiary in Mr Cox’s will before he signed it and knew she was named in the document he signed. She also admitted that after it was signed, she made false statements to staff about the will – that Mr Cox had named two nephews in Ireland in it and that the will had been torn up.
Mr Cox died on 9th August 2015 of natural causes when he was at the care facility. Ms Kumar was not at work. When informed of his death, she directed the nurse in charge to search his room for his house key.
Ms Kumar obtained a grant of probate from the Supreme Court of Victoria in November 2015, getting the house transfer in April 2016 which sold for $1,117,000 a year later. She also received another $39,000 from the sale of additional property.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia started investigating the matter after the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency was notified in December 2015 of concerns about Ms Kumar.
The Board commenced proceedings against her in July 2019 with Ms Kumar’s legal representative conceding that her conduct was serious, but “an aberration, a singular lapse in 17 years” by an otherwise “well-regarded hard-working manager” .
In their orders handed down on Tuesday, tribunal members Elisabeth Wentworth, Mary Archibald and Pamela Barry said Ms Kumar had betrayed the trust of her employer, her colleagues and the community.
“Instead of refusing the benefit under the will, she has retained it, thereby profiting from her misconduct. Despite evidence before us that she told her employer she would donate the monies, she has not done so.”
Conduct such as this shakes the confidence of the community that the vulnerable elderly will be safe from financial exploitation by nurses, particularly in the aged care setting. It damages trust and confidence in the nursing profession.
The Tribunal said the seriousness of the conduct indicated to a “deeply flawed character” of Ms Kumar who “lacks trustworthiness and integrity”.
It said Ms Kumar continued to present a risk to the public and wasn’t fit to hold registration as a nurse.
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