Rest home worker stole nearly $30,000

A bedridden South Canterbury man swindled out of nearly $30,000 by a rest home worker died before the thief was sentenced.

The bedridden patient at Moreh Home, Fairlie, had entrusted Carl David Stewart with his bank card whenever he craved a soft drink or sweets from the supermarket, only for the 46-year-old defendant to use it to withdraw cash for his own use.

Stewart, who worked as a chef at the rest home, was sentenced to seven months’ home detention and ordered to pay $28,900 reparation to the 91-year-old victim’s estate when he appeared before Judge Joanna Maze in the Timaru District Court on Thursday.

Judge Maze convicted Stewart on his guilty pleas to using a document for pecuniary advantage, as well as three counts of contravening a protection order and resisting police which arose from a later incident. Stewart had admitted dishonestly using the victim’s bank card

27 times and taking a signed blank cheque from his chequebook between March 15 and August 30, 2019.

Shortly after the victim’s death in late

2020, an intoxicated Stewart climbed through his former partner’s bedroom window and assaulted her and her children, about 12.40am on December 17.

Stewart straddled the woman’s chest and grabbed her throat as she lay in bed, before she managed to shove him off and escape the room, according to a summary of facts.

The commotion drew her 8-year-old out of bed. Stewart shoved the child back onto his bed and told him to stay in his room, before pursuing the woman to a sleep-out – where her adult son was resting – and yelling at them to get out of the house.

When police were called, Stewart locked himself inside a bedroom and blocked the door with a bed.

Police arrived and identified themselves to Stewart, informing him he was under arrest and requesting he come out of the bedroom. The officers forced the door open in response to Stewart’s repeated refusals to comply.

Stewart had been served a final protection order on behalf of the woman and her two children five months before the assault.

Defence lawyer Tiffany McRae said the assault occurred while Stewart was under ‘‘intense stress’’ from the previous offending and the state of his relationship.

‘‘Alcohol and mental health issues had got the best of him at that time.’’