Carer jailed for stealing watch worth thousands from elderly woman living with dementia at Harrogate care home
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Maira Liu, 51, was working at the Granby Nursing Home in Harrogate when she stole the cherished gold watch, worth an estimated £2,952, from the named victim who was under her care, York Crown Court.
Liu, who denied the allegation, moved to Italy after her arrest but was convicted in her absence after a jury found her guilty of fraud by abuse of position in that she stole a watch from a woman whose financial interests she was supposed to safeguard.
The victim's brother-in-law, a retired police officer who gave evidence during the trial in October, said his mother-in-law had bought the watch while on holiday in Barbados in 2007.
Responding to questions from prosecutor Christopher Bevan, he said she kept lots of jewellery and "had a few different watches, all high quality" such as Rolexes, but the diamond-encrusted one - worth $7,720 Barbadian dollars, equivalent to £2,952 - was her favourite.
He said her jewellery was precious to her and that she "wouldn't let anyone touch them".
His mother-in-law was in respite care at the nursing home on Granby Road when the theft occurred in December 2019.
He and his wife had taken on power of attorney to look after her finances following her dementia diagnosis in 2015.
He said he had last seen the watch on December 16 when he was supposed to pick up his mother-in-law for the Christmas holidays.
However, "because she was enjoying the care home, we gave her another week in the premises and arranged to pick her up on December 23 for Christmas", he added.
"Me and my wife went to pick her up – I received a phone call from my wife saying the watch was missing."
A few days later, the former policeman "went round all the jewellers in Harrogate" and gave them details and a description of the missing timepiece.
In January 2020, one of the jewellers contacted him to say he had been sold the watch by "a lady".
"They contacted me by email on January 14 and that was the actual day that (the victim) took seriously ill," he added.
"I was told they had this watch and that the lady had given it them for sale on December 19.
"I went straight to the jewellers and the man gave me her name."
He met with management at the care home about the theft and gave them Liu's name.
It was established that she was on the premises at the time of the theft.
The matter was reported to police and Liu was dismissed from her post pending further investigations.
He said that since the dementia diagnosis in April 2015, his mother-in-law's memory had "deteriorated considerably (but) she knew all the pieces of jewellery".
"She had £60,000 to £80,000 of jewellery, most of which she kept on her person half the time," he added.
"The jewellery was something she was still passionate about – she would not let anybody take it off her and she wouldn't give her jewellery to anyone."
He said he didn't want her to go into a nursing home with such high-value jewellery, including bracelets, but she was "adamant she was going to keep (the jewellery) on".
"She wouldn't necessarily have noticed the watch was missing because of her memory," he added.
"She worked hard as a young lady and set up a successful business until she could afford (such things)."
Liu - whose last registered address was Via San Francesco, Migano, Provincia Di Caserta - was arrested but moved to Italy.
At the sentence hearing on Tuesday (November 5), judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, jailed her for 18 months and ordered her to pay £840 prosecution costs, along with £2,952 compensation to the victim for the theft of the watch.
