KANAGAWA (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police earlier this week arrested a female nurse, 24, at a hospital in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture who is suspected in the fraudulent use of credit cards belonging to deceased patients, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (July 4).
On February 9, the unnamed nurse is suspected of entering the card information of an 80-year-old man patient at Aso General Hospital into an online shopping site and fraudulently purchasing a set of idol group stickers for 1,570 yen.
During questioning on suspicion of theft and illegal creation and sharing of personal electronic records, she admitted to the charges. She told the Nogata Police Station, “I was in debt and struggling to make ends meet. I wanted some goods.”
The woman took a photo of the card in the man’s hospital room with her smartphone around October last year while he was away. The man died the following month. His family later noticed suspicious transactions on the card.
The suspect is believed to have used the money for food delivery and shopping, making fraudulent payments totaling approximately 2 million yen.
The woman explained to police that she has stolen the card information of several hospitalized patients since last spring.
