A home healthcare worker pled guilty to charges of stealing from a 72-year-old client during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Monday.
Fifty-four-year-old Tina Bernadette Sineno was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay almost $1600 in restitution.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the victim reported two debit cards were taken and used without his permission and that $300 in cash was also missing. The victim said he first noticed a problem in early October last year when he attempted to pay for a purchase at a local store with one of the cards and it was declined. He went to his bank, got another debit card and deactivated the existing one.
A few days later the man told investigators he left his new card in his wallet which also contained $300 in cash on his kitchen table unattended. He discovered that the card and cash were missing from the wallet. When he checked with his bank, he discovered that six charges had been made to his account totaling $1,300.
The investigation revealed Sineno had used the victim’s card to make three on-line purchases from Walmart.com in which she used her email and phone number. The other transactions were made at location believed to have been in Branson. According to the probable cause affidavit, all of the transactions were made during the period Sineno had unauthorized possession of the victim’s card.
Sineno was charged with exploitation of a vulnerable person and theft of property.
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