CROOKED CARER | 

Nurse who raided vulnerable patients’ bank accounts to fund lavish lifestyle avoids jail

When confronted by the Sunday World, Natalia Winiarska chose to slam her front door rather than say sorry

Steven Moore and Paul Higgins

Yesterday at 08:30

A sticky-fingered nurse who raided the bank accounts of vulnerable patients while they slept or while they had scans had no words this week for her victims.

Natalia Winiarska was only kept from going to jail by her seven-month-old daughter but when confronted by the Sunday World, she chose to slam her front door rather than say sorry.

The 27-year-old mum had been scamming the most vulnerable patients she came across while working at Antrim Area Hospital.

The heartless health worker was discovered to be taking her patients’ wallets and bank cards as well as their temperatures.

In total she stole £6,200 from six patients and spent the money on clothes, skincare products and paying her gambling debts – though police investigations discovered she attempted to steal much more.

Holding her designer dog in her arms as she nervously poked her head round her front door on Thursday morning, she said: “Why are you here? I’m not going to talk about that.”

And when given a chance to say sorry she instead slammed the door shut in a hurry, without another word.

Winiarska walked out of Antrim Crown Court after Judge Alistair Devlin handed the fraudster, “not without hesitation,” a combination order of 100 hours’ community service and two years on probation.

He told the disgraced registered nurse, who is still to face health service disciplinary proceedings, that given the pre-planned, premeditated exploitation of elderly and vulnerable victims and the “gross breach of trust” associated with the offences, her crimes merited a jail sentence.

“However, the court does note that you are now the mother of a seven-month-old daughter,” said the judge, adding that he had to take account of the “likely harm and long-term impact that an immediate but relatively short-term of imprisonment would have not just on you but also on your young and dependent child in this important stage of her life.”

When she was arraigned earlier this year Winarska, whose address was given as c/o Reid Black solicitors, Main Street in Ballyclare due to paramilitary threats against her, entered guilty pleas to a total of 49 dishonesty offences including 42 counts of fraud by false representation, five of attempted fraud and two of theft, committed against six victims over an 11-month time span between October 1 2020 and August 5 2021.

Prosecuting counsel Suzanne Gallagher had earlier outlined how the series of frauds came to light in August 2021 when an 83-year-old lady contacted her bank to report two fraudulent transactions.

The pensioner confirmed she had been an inpatient in Antrim Area Hospital and brought her Danske Bank card and mobile phone in a handbag with her to hospital.

While her personal effects were put into the bedside locker, the actual lock broke during her admission and the victim told cops she had left her handbag in the locker but unattended when she had been sent for scans.

Two days later, police received a further report from staff at the hospital that a 68-year-old male patient had told them his wallet had been stolen.

“His family were able to confirm to the hospital that during his stay there had also been four unauthorised transactions from his Santander bank account and three unauthorised attempted transactions,” said Ms Gallagher.

Police inquires lead them to Ballymena Credit Union and staff there confirmed there had been an online transfer of funds from the 83-year-old’s account to Winiarska through the account of her ex-boyfriend and she had withdrawn the cash three days later.

The barrister told the court: “Furthermore, staff at the credit union disclosed that there was a pending transaction to Ms Winiarska’s account that had been deposited in the same way, however they were able to see the card used belonged to the 68-year-old victim.”

Winiarska was arrested and questioned the following day but she refused to answer police questions and was freed on police bail pending further inquiries.

On August 22, the sister of a 61-year-old man with learning difficulties contacted police to report that her brother’s wallet had been stolen while he had been a patient in Antrim Area Hospital.

Ms Gallagher said staff had been alerted at the time and the ward sister was advised by nursing staff that although the wallet was found and the cards were present, there was approximately £110 in cash missing.

The victim’s sister was also able to tell detectives there had been three unauthorised transactions and two unauthorised attempted transactions from the victim’s account.

“Police examination of the Ballymena Credit Union account of Natalia Winiarska revealed a further three victims,” said the barrister – an 82-year-old woman who had been a patient in the Ulster Hospital and two men aged 71 and 72 respectively in Antrim Area Hospital.

Ms Gallagher told the court that in five of the six cases, Winiarska was “directly involved” in caring for the patients while in the last case, the victim was unfortunate enough to have been on the same bay.

Arrested and reinterviewed in June last year, Winiarska made almost full confessions, admitting to police that she recorded the bank card details of each victim and used these details to complete all the transactions, agreeing that “she had no authorisation/permission to use the bank details”.

Although she denied stealing cash at that stage, Winiarksa later admitted that she had stolen cash from two patients, claiming that she was “really sorry” and had used the cash to cover her gambling debts.

The court heard however that in addition to debts, Winiarska used the stolen card details to pay for electricity, mobile phone top-ups, and to buy clothes and skincare products.

It emerged that Winiarska’s completely innocent and unaware ex had been arrested and questioned twice under caution and had been subject to police bail conditions for about ten months until the disgraced nurse finally confessed her guilt.

Sentencing Winiarska on Tuesday, Judge Devlin said it was clear that despite having worked hard through university to become a qualified nurse, her career now “will either be at an end or at the very least, in the most grave jeopardy” given her crimes and also that there has been a “significant loss of reputation”.

“The fact that your parents were in a position to advance you a loan to meet the outstanding gambling debts renders it all the more absurd, but also tragic, the fact that you decided to commit these offences,” said Judge Devlin.

Describing her offences as “quite disgraceful,” the judge told the court that probation are of the opinion that support and supervision from them would help Winiarska in tackling her gambling and mental health issues.

Imposing the combination order, he warned Winiarksa that any failure to comply or breach of any aspect of it would see her back in court and facing the “almost certainty” of jail.