A health worker in the United Kingdom who was charged with stealing a dead patient’s credit card has reportedly refused to apologize.
According to the Daily Mail, 23-year-old Ayesha Basharat previously admitted to theft and fraud by false representation after she was busted for using an 83-year-old woman’s credit card to purchase snacks from the vending machine. Authorities say the patient died on Jan. 24 at 1:56 p.m., just 17 minutes before Basharat used the stolen card to buy chips and soda.
Authorities say Basharat, who was working in the Heartlands Hospital COVID-19 ward, made several more fraudulent transactions several days later, and was ultimately arrested during her shift on Jan 28, after the card had been canceled. She initially told officers she had found the dead patient’s credit card on the floor and mistakenly thought it was her own.
The Daily Mail reports Basharat had confessed to the crime during her court appearance Wednesday but refused to issue an apology to her employer or the dead patient’s family, simply stating: “I don’t want to talk about it. I have nothing to say.”
The Birmingham resident received two five-month jail terms to run concurrently. The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust confirmed the healthcare worked had been suspended and they have since launched an internal investigation.
“Ayesha Basharat was immediately suspended when this incident came to light and all steps were taken to support the patient’s family,” a spokesman for the trust told the Daily Mail. “The trust has fully supported the police with their investigation and a result of Ms. Basharat’s conviction, the trust will now proceed with our internal HR processes, with due consideration given to the criminal conviction that Ms Basharat has received. We would like to offer our sympathies to the patient’s family and sincerely apologise for their experience; this incident is disgraceful and clearly fell short of the high standards of integrity that we all expect of NHS employees.”
