Lidcombe: Esther Aleli sentenced for swindling quadriplegic man at Southern Cross Community Healthcare facility

A single mum who conned a brain-damaged quadriplegic patient to pay her more than $90,000 has learned her fate for taking advantage of the vulnerable man in a western Sydney care facility.

A former Southern Cross Community Healthcare worker, Esther Aleli, has avoided jail and ordered to compensate a vulnerable quadriplegic man more than $90,000 after defrauding him in a love ruse.

The Ashcroft woman defrauded the man who she met at Ferguson Lodge facility in Lidcombe, where he was a patient following a horrific workplace accident in 2017 that left him with “catastrophic injuries” and brain damage including an impaired memory.

It also left him with a $560,000 insurance payout that Aleli, 36, exploited.

After initially fighting two counts of dishonestly gain financial advantage of deception, she pleaded guilty to the offence, carried out between late December 2018 and April 2019.

The court heard the mum, who is the sole provider for her children, formed an intimate relationship with the victim in 2018 and failed to tell her employer.

Police facts reveal he willingly transferred $30,000 to Aleli as a loan for car payments, Christmas presents for her children, rental bond and furniture after Southern Cross ceased its care of him in February 2019 but they continued their intimate relationship.

Over four months after that loan, 16 transactions worth $87,500 were made to Aleli that the disabled man did not authorise.

“She had full access to his financials including his bank cards and PIN numbers,’’ Magistrate Kate Thompson told Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday.

Esther Aleli abused the trust of a disabled man.

“She was in a position of trust and she took advantage of that trust.’’

Police facts state Aleli had “a genuine but not lawful belief that she was entitled to a portion of the funds”.

The court heard how Aleli tricked the victim by posing as “Sarah O’Brien” on Facebook and asked him for a loan of $2500 so she could get home from overseas.

“Sarah” then asked for the money to be transferred to Aleli who would pass it on to her.

Three weeks later, “Sarah” made the same request for money to get home and the man agreed to pay it.

But when the loan was not repaid the man called police who found the number for Sarah was actually registered to Aleli in Brisbane.

Aleli had sent $40,000 of the money she received through Western Union to a man in Samoa — where the swindler travelled after receiving the huge sum.

In January last year, Aleli fronted Granville police station where she confessed to “deceiving the victim into thinking she was his girlfriend and acknowledged the fact that the victim’s brain injury may affect his understanding of these actions”.

At Parramatta District Court on Tuesday, Magistrate Kate Thompson sentenced Aleli to an 18-month intensive correction order and gave her a 20 per cent discount because she pleaded guilty early in court proceedings.

The punishment allows Aleli, who the court heard had completed a rehabilitation program, to serve the sentence from home. She was also ordered to pay the victim $92,500 in compensation and complete 150 hours of community service.

“I accept she is remorseful of her conduct and what she has done was wrong,’’ Magistrate Thompson said.

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