A disgraced nurse has been ordered to hand back more than $880,000 she inherited from a 92-year-old patient she met just weeks before his death.
Abha Anuradha Kumar was ordered by the Supreme Court last week to return the money after obtaining a grant of probate to manage the estate of Lionel Cox in 2015, including proceeds from the sale of his Fitzroy home.
Abha Anuradha Kumar (right) must return $880,000 she inherited from Lionel Cox, a patient she met just weeks before he died.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
Justice Melissa Daly ordered the grant of probate be revoked on November 21. The funds, which Kumar had been required to pay into a trust account managed by the court, will be disbursed to several cousins of Cox or their estates, according to the order.
The value of the estate had been diminished by a series of transfers made by Kumar to pay for administrative fees and legal costs, including a $150,000 costs order arising from a hearing in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2019.
Kumar was a manager at Cambridge House, a residential aged care facility in Collingwood, when she met Cox in July 2015, according to court documents.
She immediately learnt that Cox, who was frail and in poor health, had no immediate family, owned property and had never made a will. Within three days of his admission to the home, Kumar had bought a will kit, it was alleged in a statement of claim.
Lionel Cox died in 2015.
Three weeks later, she allegedly persuaded two staff members at Cambridge House to witness Cox’s handwritten will. However, she failed to tell them she was the executor and sole beneficiary.
On August 9, 2015, Cox died after a short battle with pneumonia. It is alleged that Kumar was not working on the day of his death, but called Cambridge House and demanded a junior staff member search for Cox’s house key before his body was taken to a funeral home.
Part of Lionel Cox’s will.
She became the “informant” on his death certificate and obtained a grant of probate from the Supreme Court in November 2015.
Cox’s former home in Greeves Street sold for $1,117,000 in 2016, while Kumar also received $36,277 cash and personal items valued at $3000, according to court documents.
In August 2021, the former nurse was served with a “summons for revocation” in a Supreme Court action launched by State Trustees, which is owned by the Victorian government.
State Trustees’ lawyers claim the will was not executed in compliance with legislation and was inconsistent with Cox’s wishes.
The court’s decision last week to revoke probate comes more than five years after Kumar was banned from being a registered health practitioner for engaging in professional misconduct, following an investigation by the Nursing and Midwifery Board.
She appeared before VCAT in 2019, when she was described as a “deeply flawed character” who “lacks trustworthiness and integrity” and posed a risk to the public.
“The conduct in this case constituted determined, goal-directed actions by Ms Kumar to ensure that Mr Cox – a vulnerable, elderly man in her care – made a will in her favour, and that no one knew he had done so until after he died,” according to a ruling by three VCAT members.
Kumar was banned from being a registered health practitioner and from working or volunteering in any sort of aged care capacity for five years.
Geoffrey Cox, a cousin of Lionel Cox and a beneficiary of the recent court decision, declined to comment.
However, his lawyer, James Dimond from the law firm Moores, said the will had been made in “the most suspicious circumstances imaginable”.
Dimond, who heads the firm’s elder financial abuse practice, said the court’s decision to revoke probate served an important public interest.
“It’s an important reminder that the law can and will catch up with you eventually,” he said.
“This is a rare situation involving a medical professional, but elderly and vulnerable people are separated from their assets or pressured to sign dodgy wills and other legal documents all the time.
“The court system is rife with elder financial abuse cases, usually involving close family members.”
Kumar could not be reached for comment. Her lawyer, Rosemary Prior from Prior Law, did not respond to requests for comment.
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