Aged care worker steals $80k from residents and business

An aged care worker from Canberra stole around $80,000 from "innocent, trusting" residents and the provider she worked for.

Ms Lory Jane Librando worked at the Royal Freemasons Benevolent Institution in Holt and stole from three residents, including a woman with an intellectual disability.

Ms Librando also forged invoices, resulting in the theft of about $48,500 from the provider.

She pleaded guilty to charges on Tuesday at the ACT Supreme Court, which included obtaining financial advantage by deception and theft.

The manager of the aged care home provided an impact statement to the court.

"While appearing nice and friendly to residents, she betrayed their trust," the statement read.

"I suffer from sleepless nights plagued by the question: 'How could she have done this to these vulnerable people?"

The manager said the victims were "innocent, trusting, older people".

Ms Librando started working at the aged care home in 2012, where she initially was a receptionist, but her role expanded to include paying invoices for maintenance and other administrative tasks.

In 2018, she started to defraud her employer and residents.

She stole around $17,500 from a woman with an intellectual disability by using her Eftpos card to withdraw cash on several occasions.

She also stole $10,500 from a male resident but made several deposits totalling $8,740 back into his account over several months before the crimes came to the attention of her employer and the police.

In August 2019, Ms Librando stole $380 from another male resident through cash withdrawals; however, the resident's daughter noticed the two unusual transactions and viewed CCTV footage of the ATM transaction to identify Ms Librando.

She was consequently stood down from work, and the provider engaged a forensic accountant who uncovered the other crimes.

Between January 2018 and August 2019, Ms Librando created 43 fraudulent invoices by stamping them with her boss's signature on them.

The provider paid these fraudulent invoices into Ms Librando and her husband's joint bank account.

The money stolen from the invoices came to a total of $76,941.

Ms Librando admitted to using the resident's cards to withdraw cash and said that she would create false invoices in the name of her husband's company.

Prosecutor Claire Daly said Ms Librando's expressions of remorse were "intertwined with self-pity".

"[Librando stole a] large amount of money, engaged in an enormous breach of trust, and has faced very little consequences to date," Ms Daly told the court.

Ms Librando remains on bail, with her sentence due later in the year.

Do you have an idea for a story?
Email [email protected]