A former Gold Coast nurse has walked away with 12 months’ probation after pleading guilty to stealing a patient’s bank card and using it to pay for a hair appointment.<\/p>\n
Southport Magistrates Court heard Melelani Crelley’s victim was a 78-year-old woman in an induced coma in Robina Hospital’s intensive care unit.<\/p>\n
Ms Crelley was working at Robina Hospital at the time.<\/p>\n
The victim’s purse was in a locked box next to her hospital bed, which would’ve required a hospital staff member with the key to unlock it, the court heard.<\/p>\n
On May 31 last year, the victim woke from her coma and discovered her purse was gone.<\/p>\n
Ms Crelley told police she found the purse at the front of the hospital and intended to hand it in.<\/p>\n
But she used the victim’s bank card to pay for a hair appointment in Varsity Lakes on April 27, 2024, the court heard.<\/p>\n
She claimed she didn’t know the victim.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A nurse, Ms Crelley lost her job when she was charged. (ABC Gold Coast: Mackenzie Colahan)<\/p>\n
The victim’s son reported the transaction to police and, on July 18, 2024, Ms Crelley was arrested.<\/p>\n
Ms Crelley remained silent in court and wiped tears from her face as Magistrate Jane Bentley addressed her.<\/p>\n
Her lawyer, Sinead Campbell, told the court Ms Crelley lost her job immediately after the arrest and was extremely remorseful.<\/p>\n
“She realised that her actions represented a significant breach of trust, not only to her employer but also to her colleagues [and] the community,” Ms Campbell said.<\/p>\n
In sentencing Ms Crelley, the magistrate said it was a “significant breach of trust” to take the victim’s purse.<\/p>\n
“I note that it’s not alleged that you took it from the locker next to the patient who was in a coma,” Ms Bentley said.<\/p>\n
“One could not say that you took it knowing that the victim was in a coma.<\/p>\n
“But it is still serious offending for a person in your position.”<\/p>\n
A conviction was not recorded and Ms Crelley was released on 12 months of probation.<\/p>\n
Ms Crelley’s nursing registration is listed as suspended, according to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s (AHPRA) website.<\/p>\n
Queensland Health says she is no longer employed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Gold Coast nurse has walked away with 12 months’ probation after pleading guilty to stealing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1108,48,354,43,44,39849,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-176662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-fraud","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-nurse","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}