Her husband was sending her money from prison, encouraging her to spend it or transfer it to others. Rotorua nurse Linda Olive Aldworth did – and the courts found she laundered almost $340,000 from Mohamed Atta over a year and a half. The Rotorua woman told a disciplinary tribunal she was “living in a make-believe world”, not thinking about where that cash came from. After her 2016 conviction, the Crown seized and sold her house, and she has now been barred from a return to nursing. Until then, her almost 40-year career had been unblemished, a recently-released New Zealand Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal decision said. However, the offending was “so serious and sustained” that she couldn’t remain registered. “Her misconduct goes to the heart of the practitioner’s integrity,” a decision said. Almost $342,000 from “unidentified sources” went into accounts Aldworth operated – including two in the names of her grandchildren – between January 2013 and October 2014. That was almost $3622 a week “over and above her legitimate income”, according to court documents. She once transferred $12,669 to one of Atta’s family members in Egypt, and also bought herself “items including a motor vehicle, a spa pool and a lounge suite”. Atta, it transpired, was the New Zealand ringleader of a methamphetamine ring uncovered by an 18-month investigation. Aldworth served ten-and-a-half months on home detention, had completed courses, and wanted to return to nursing, the tribunal heard. She apologised for her offences. Aldworth’s nursing registration was cancelled and she was formally censured. She now works in a hotel kitchen, boards with her daughter and grandchildren, and has no material assets, the decision said.
