A nurse who stole more than £100,000 from elderly patients to fund a luxury life of gambling and fine food has been struck off the register.
Kelvin Ramasta, a staff member at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, took advantage of the vulnerable pensioners on several occasions over a period of years.
He has now been barred from the profession by the Nursing and Midwifery Council having received a jail sentence at Peterborough Crown Court for four years and six months in April 2024.
Ramasta, 31, admitted stealing £102,000 belonging to Person A, £203.29 from Person B and £1,000 belonging to Person C, a report from the fitness to practise committee panel said.
The thefts took place in 2021 and 2022 and were from three different patients under his care who were elderly and vulnerable.
Despite everything, Ramasta had insisted he was a ‘good nurse’ following reports of the thefts.
Person A’s bank referred a case to the police due to suspicious activity, after a total of £101,000 had been transferred into his account between November 9 2021 to April 22 2022, normally in increments of £1,000.
These transfers were being made from a bank account linked to Person A, a 76-year-old man with dementia who stayed at the hospital in November 2021 and January 2022.
Kelvin Ramasta, a staff member at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge , took advantage of the vulnerable pensioners on several occasions over a period of years
He had received a jail sentence at Peterborough Crown Court for four years and six months in April 2024
Further checks revealed Ramasta had opened the account in the man’s name with the bank noting the fingerprints matched those used to open Ramasta’s own account.
It comes as the elderly man had been admitted to hospital in October 2021, his family explaining he had lost a lot of weight and was almost oblivious of what was going on around him. He was discharged on November 15 2021 but later diagnosed with dementia.
Following the revelation, officers made further enquiries at Addenbrooke’s which revealed other patients had also reported thefts.
For example, in the case of Person C, where the husband of the 74-year-old woman – also with dementia – received a call from her bank in April 2022 concerning suspicious activity on her account and debit card.
The vulnerable lady’s family visited the hospital and found money and her bank card missing, the report said.
Days later, Person C’s husband received notification from the bank that it had received a cheque for £1,000 to be removed from her account, which was made payable to Ramasta, the report added.
Ramasta was suspended by the hospital trust in April 2022 and dismissed in January 2023, according to the panel.
A week after he was arrested and interviewed on May 4 2022, police were contacted about a third victim.
The daughter of a woman admitted to hospital on February 22 2022, when she was 85, said her mother’s bank cards had been stolen from her purse and used.
The elderly woman, described by her family as extremely vulnerable and lacking in mental capacity, was discharged from hospital on May 9.
Checks by her family revealed her bank card had been used 11 times, between 18 and 26 April, to spend £203.29. The woman had been on the same ward as Ramasta’s second victim.
The panel noted remarks from the judge on sentencing who said Ramasta stole ‘all you could’ and the money was used to ‘subsidise your life, gambling, luxury items for food and travel’.
In a regulatory concerns response form in June 2024, Ramasta admitted to the convictions but stated that he had only admitted the charges to get a lesser sentence, then four months later in a case management form said: ‘I was just blinded by the money and I’m sorry,’ the panel noted.
In a case management form completed by Ramasta in October last year, he said: ‘I’ve made mistake but I know I’m a good nurse and have the skills of an excellent nurse.
‘I help a lot of patients by providing quality care during Covid and post-Covid times.
‘I was just blinded by the money and I’m sorry.
‘I genuinely feel sorry for all the family I’ve mistaken with (sic).
‘Now I’m trying to start again and build a new path, to have a fresh start and provide a better future for my kids.’
The panel said it was of the view that there is ‘a high risk of repetition as Mr Ramasta stole from three different patients on numerous different occasions in a premeditated and sophisticated manner’.
They decided to make a striking-off order in Ramasta’s case.
As the striking-off order cannot take effect until the end of the 28-day appeal period, the panel imposed an interim suspension order for a period of 18 months to cover any potential period of appeal.