A woman employed as a residential aged care home cleaner in Sydney’s west and the Blue Mountains has been charged with stealing more than $100,000 in jewellery from her elderly clients. Police allege the 52-year-old stole a gold and sapphire ring from an 81-year-old woman while she was cleaning the woman’s home in St Clair on Thursday last week. The same day, the woman cleaned a 72-year-old woman’s home at Wentworth Falls, where she allegedly stole further jewellery – a gold, diamond and ruby ring – which was worth in excess of $100,000. Blue Mountains police were notified when the second woman “noticed after [the] cleaning lady had visited she’d been cleaned out, pardon the pun,” Chief Inspector Peter Scheinflug said. Detectives commenced inquiries and were able to identify that the woman in St Clair was also an alleged victim of theft by the same cleaner. Chief Inspector Scheinflug said the cleaner had been employed by a company that specialises in providing assistance to elderly people, and was contracted to do both premises. On Wednesday morning, police alleged the woman pawned a number of stolen items at a shop in Penrith, including the two elderly women’s rings. Later that day, police attended her home in Hebersham and arrested her. She was charged with two counts of larceny relating to the alleged thefts and conditionally bailed to appear at Mount Druitt Local Court on January 16. During a subsequent search of the woman’s home, police located about 50 other items of jewellery suspected to be stolen over a two-year period from unsuspecting elderly clients. Police are now in the process of identifying the owners of these items of jewellery.
