A private nurse, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing BD25,700 from a disabled elderly patient, is now on trial for laundering the money she took.
In March, the 30-year-old Indian woman was found guilty of using her 79-year-old patient’s phone to transfer funds from his online banking app to herself, in order to settle debts in India.
She has now returned to the High Criminal Court on charges of laundering BD22,250 – part of the amount she stole – having returned BD3,500 to the victim.
The prosecution stated that the defendant transferred BD22,051 to her husband’s bank account in India in four overseas wire transactions.
She reportedly spent the rest of the money on food and jewellery, as well as on financial trading platforms.
She was charged with laundering money acquired through another crime, for which she has already been convicted. She admitted to the charges.
For the initial trial, the National Centre for Financial Investigations tracked her transactions and created two reports detailing how the money was stolen, and where it went.
An agent concluded that the findings of the report demonstrated that she committed money laundering, on top of the embezzlement.
Her assets were frozen, and BD750 was confiscated from her bank account.
In the initial trial, the woman was found guilty of using the victim’s electronic signature – a one-time password (OTP) – for her own advantage, to gain unauthorised access to his online banking and steal the funds.
In addition to her 10-year prison sentence, she was fined BD5,000 and will be deported after completing her sentence. She appealed to the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court against the verdict, but judges upheld it.
Prosecutors previously accused her of ‘exploiting the victim’s condition and lack of mobility’ to carry out the theft, as the elderly man was immobile and had difficulties speaking following throat surgery.
The GDN earlier reported that the incident first came to light when the patient’s 49-year-old son discovered that large amounts of money had been withdrawn from his father’s account in September and October 2025.
He traced the path of the funds, and reportedly discovered that they were credited to the bank account of the nurse who took care of his medically dependent father.
According to the son, his father had undergone a tracheotomy two years ago – a procedure in which an opening is made in the throat to insert a tracheal tube which allows a patient to breathe without using the nose or mouth.
The nurse was paid a monthly salary of BD300 to give the elderly Bahraini his medications, maintain his ventilator and change his clothes.
As the defendant failed to make full restitution, the son brought the matter to the attention of the authorities.
In court, the prosecution asked to send a request to Indian authorities for judicial and law-enforcement co-operation, to track the money and attempt to recover it, but the request does not appear to have been granted.
Judges set July 28 as the date a verdict will be issued in the case.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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