A health care worker in the United Kingdom has confessed to using a dead patient’s debit card to buy snacks from the vending machine — including just 17 minutes after the victim died.
Ayesha Basharat, 23, appeared in Birmingham court Wednesday on charges she swiped the dead 83-year-old woman’s card at Heartlands Hospital in the city, news outlet ITV reported.
Doctors had recorded the woman’s time of death as 1:56 p.m. on Jan. 24 — but just 17 minutes later purchases were made on her card at the vending machine, police said.
Basharat allegedly made six purchases using the contactless payment option and then made one more later in the evening.
She then tried again four days later, but by that time the card had already been canceled, the outlet reported.
Police arrested Basharat during her shift and found the card still in her possession, the outlet reported.
She initially claimed that she found the card on the floor and got it confused with her own, but authorities said the cards were different colors.
Basharat on Wednesday copped to charges of theft and fraud by false representation.