On the surface, Dorothy Winifred Pearson was a dutiful citizen, helping her elderly neighbour with her groceries. But the 57-year-old South Dunedin resident was not what she seemed. As soon as Pearson discovered the PIN for the woman’s eftpos card, she “mercilessly” ripped her off, bleeding the victim’s accounts of more than $7000 over 10 months. When the woman, who suffers from mild dementia, discovered the funds were missing, she ended up at the police station watching footage of someone making a withdrawal from her account. She recognised the swindler immediately. “I don’t swear but I said, for the first time ever ‘that’s the bitch, Dorothy Pearson, and she lives right across the street from me’,” the victim said. The rare expletive “eased the pain” at the time, the committed churchgoer said. Pearson appeared in the Dunedin District Court this week after pleading guilty to 10 counts of using a document for a pecuniary advantage. The defendant, who had been a caregiver for 20 years before losing her job recently, had a clean criminal record and argued she should not be photographed in court because she was not a threat to the community. Judge Philip Connell, though, said the offending was significant and potential future employers should be forewarned about the woman’s ability to commit such fraud.
