Dead mum’s drug scam now revealed
An elderly woman found dead in her own waste was once part of a drug scam with one of the women found guilty of neglecting her.
During a three-week trial, the High Court at Auckland heard that the body of Ena Lai Dung, 76, was found in a severely malnourished and dehydrated state and she was left to sleep in her own waste.
Yesterday her daughter Cindy Taylor was jailed for 13 years and three months for her manslaughter, and for dishonestly using her bank card.
Flatmates, married couple Brian and Luana Taylor, were also found guilty of failing to protect a vulnerable adult and were yesterday sentenced to six years, and six years and three months jail respectively.
Cindy Taylor was also found guilty and sentenced on two charges of dishonestly using a document, after she made withdrawals from her mother and late uncle’s bank cards, totalling $37,000.
The four lived together in Manurewa, south Auckland. Luana and Brian Taylor described Cindy Taylor and Dung as ‘‘boarders’’ in phone calls to 111 after Dung died.
However, it can now be revealed that the four knew each other very well and that Dung and Luana Taylor were convicted of a drug scam in 2007.
According to a summary of facts, which until now has been suppressed, Luana Taylor used Dung, Dung’s brother Gordon Joe, and Dung’s husband Hok Lai Dung to try to score drugs.
The four were then living in Whakatane and at the time Taylor was banned from obtaining pethidine, a Class B drug typically prescribed for pain.
In July and August 2007 the four travelled throughout the North Island pretending to be foreign tourists on holiday. They visited several hospitals and clinics using aliases.
The Dung couple pretended to be nonenglish speaking tourists, Joe pretended to be a tour bus driver and Taylor claimed she was on holiday from Canada.
Through this ruse, Taylor successfully convinced doctors she was in severe pain.
She alternatively claimed she had a history of kidney disorders and that she had fallen from a bus and hurt her hip.
After Taylor was admitted to Taranaki Base Hospital and given intravenous pethidine, doctors discovered that her alias, Jina Miller, was not acknowledged by medical staff in Canada.
Another time she pretended to have fallen from a bus and complained the fall had disrupted a pin in her hip.
‘‘Upon arrival at the hospital she demanded that she be given pethidine for her pain as she was allergic to many pain killers,’’ the summary of facts said.
‘‘She repeatedly told the doctors that their diagnosis was incorrect and was generally abusive after being told there was no pethidine in the hospital.’’
An X-ray confirmed she did not have displaced hip pins but the hospital agreed to prescribe her pethidine.
At other times Taylor pretended to be Ena Lai Dung’s orthopaedic nurse, telling medical centre staff that Dung needed pain medication after falling from the bus, claiming she was allergic to everything except pethidine.
The scam was so elaborate that Taylor produced a ‘‘care diary’’ to doctors, fabricating the care and medicine she had given to Dung.
However, the ruse was up following a final visit to a Masterton clinic, after Dung pretended to be in severe pain.
Subsequent X-rays revealed she had no broken bones and the next day police executed a search warrant at the motor lodge where the four were staying.
‘‘Police quickly established that the defendant Ena Lai Dung spoke fluent English,’’ the summary of facts said.
‘‘When interviewed, the defendant Ena Lai Dung admitted she had given false details at various locations to obtain pethidine for her friend Luana ‘as she needed pethidine for pain relief’. She also informed police that the trip had been fully funded by the defendant Taylor.’’
Dung, her husband and her brother were all convicted of procuring drugs, while Taylor admitted seven charges of theft of a controlled drug and three of obtaining medical services by deception.
After the offending Brian and Luana Taylor moved from Whakatane to Auckland and continued to live with Ena Lai Dung, her husband Hok Lai Dung and her brother William Joe.
William Joe died in 2013 and Dung’s husband eventually left her.
Dung’s daughter Cindy moved into the Manurewa home in 2012. She changed her surname to Taylor because of her close relationship with Brian and Luana Taylor, but the three are not related.
In January 2015 Luana Taylor called ambulance staff to the home after complaining she thought her boarder was dead.
Paramedics found the emaciated body of Ena Lai Dung, covered in her own waste, and lying on a plastic sheet.
Her body was covered in sores and she had 15 broken bones which were days or weeks old.
A forensic pathologist said Dung had died from malnutrition and dehydration, attributing her state to poor nursing care. - Fairfax NZ