A plumber who defrauded a 90-year-old woman with dementia of about $292,000 during his handyman services has failed in his bid to undergo drug and alcohol rehabilitation before going to jail.
James Lawrence Michael Raftery entered a late guilty plea to one count of theft and fronted the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday for sentencing.
Agreed facts tendered to the court state that Raftery, 33, stole $292,240 from the Yarralumla woman with dementia between June 2019 and February 2020.
While that amount was obtained dishonestly, the total Raftery took from the victim was about $413,816.
He knew the woman, who lived alone and received $1.2m from various financial institutions after her husband's death, from doing odd jobs and plumbing jobs at her residence.
The offender at the time ran his own business, Hype Plumbing & Construction, and he visited her numerous times when sums of money were transferred into his bank account.
Investigations into the incident began after the victim's cousin visited her in December 2019.
She told her cousin that the bank sent her a letter informing her that a clamp had been put on her Netbank account due to discrepancies.
She then visited a branch and told an employee that Raftery was helping around the house and that she was concerned about him as he "got cranky" because her Netbank was locked.
In early 2020, the victim and her cousin met with the bank before the suspicious transactions were reported to police.
The agreed facts state that the victim "was shocked that such large amounts of money were missing from her account".
The offender was arrested in November 2020 and in a police interview, he said he returned about $20,000 and gambled away about $100,000.
About the same time as Raftery's offending, the victim received help from an IT contractor, Byung Uk Cho, who also goes by the first name of Kevin.
Mr Cho, who has no links with Raftery, transferred himself about $363,000 from her Netbank account.
Mr Cho, in his late 20s and from South Korea, has since returned the money to her after pleading not guilty to 27 fraud charges.
A magistrate last March dismissed all of Mr Cho's charges after prosecutors said they would offer no evidence.
In the Supreme Court on Tuesday, defence lawyer Dr Jan de Bruin submitted for his client to attend a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre to deal with his addiction and childhood trauma before being sentenced to jail.
Raftery also wrote a letter about it and spoke in court, saying rehabilitation was about "just giving myself the best chance".
"I'm not trying to get out of jail," he said.
Justice Michael Elkaim rejected the idea, saying he could not delay the jail sentence and described Raftery's offending as reprehensible.
"He has an unfortunate and difficult personal history. I am entitled and do take this history into account in sentencing, but stealing from an elderly person nearly 90 years of age and suffering the beginnings of dementia is reprehensible," Justice Elkaim said.
"He has a long criminal history, which includes offences of deception."
He said he disagreed with the argument that there was no evidence of actual deception.
The victim's cousin tendered a victim impact statement that outlined her "shock and bewilderment at being cheated and having her funds depleted".
The court also heard Raftery was suffering from a heart condition that meant it was functioning at only 25 per cent.
He was sentenced to 12 months and three weeks jail to be suspended after four months upon him entering a two-year good behaviour order.
Justice Elkaim said he was satisfied that the Canberra jail had appropriate medical facilities to address his heart condition.
Earlier in the hearing, his mother sobbed while giving evidence, expressing her sorrow and guilt at letting the offender down as a carer and as a mother.
"I wasn't a good mother. I should be ashamed of myself. I'm trying to work on that," she said.
