At stake is a woman who worked as head nurse at the Central Region Rehabilitation Medicine Center (CMRRC) – Rovisco Pais, in Tocha. The professional appropriated money belonging to a user admitted to that institution for around 30 years.
The nurse was accused of Public Ministry of committing a crime of embezzlement, for having appropriated 7921,90 euros belonging to an 85-year-old patient, hospitalized at the center for more than three decades.
According to , in 2019 the defendant was responsible for withdrawing the monthly retirement pension of a patient with Hansen’s disease (leprosy), who had physical limitations that prevented him from traveling independently to CTT to collect the respective postal orders.
The nurse had in her possession a power of attorney that allowed her to withdraw the pension in the user’s name, a circumstance that contributed to the situation not arising for around a year and a half.
Previously, the collection of money from users was carried out by the nuns of the Congregation of Saint Vincent Paul. However, after moving to Lisbon, this responsibility became the responsibility of the nurse.
Between March 2020 and September 2021, the defendant failed to deliver the amounts corresponding to the user’s pensions, appropriating around eight thousand euros. The case was detected by the rehabilitation center’s financial services, which reported the facts to the authorities.
Subsequently, the accused, aged 64 and resident in Figueira da Foz, returned the amount in four tranches, claiming that it had not been done sooner due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, his statement did not convince the Center’s Judicial Police.
The Rovisco Pais Rehabilitation Medicine Center operates in a former leper hospital, the only one in Portugal, opened in 1947. Currently, two users remain hospitalized, both around 90 years old, who suffered from leprosy.
Although they have recovered from the disease, they continue to face sequelae resulting from this pathology.
