Tracy Moana Peterson siphoned over $59,000 from an elderly man she befriended at a rest home. Photo / Getty Images
Tracy Moana Peterson siphoned over $59,000 from an elderly man she befriended at a rest home. Photo / Getty Images
Tracy Moana Peterson siphoned over $59,000 from an elderly man she befriended at a rest home.
Peterson was convicted by a court and then suspended and censured for professional misconduct by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.
She regrets her actions but said they were the result of “blurred boundaries”.
A nurse siphoned tens of thousands of dollars from an elderly man she befriended as he volunteered at a rest home.
The victim, described as elderly and vulnerable with lifelong medical issues, had lived with his parents at their family home until their death but spent any time he could volunteering at a rest home.
But, when he met Tracy Moana Peterson through a family member who worked at the rest home, she scammed him out of more than $59,000.
It followed her earlier conviction in the Auckland District Court on representative criminal charges including accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose and dishonest use of a document.
The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal suspended the nurse and censured her after she was convicted on criminal charges. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson.
Peterson was described as having suffered from “blurred boundaries” with the victim after he had an accident and didn’t want to go into care so it was arranged that she moved into his house to look after him.
In a decision last year, but only released to the public this week, the tribunal found that each of the nine convictions entered against Peterson reflected poorly on her fitness to practise as the offending was extensive.
“Not only are they for offences involving dishonesty, but the victim of the offending was a vulnerable, elderly man,” the tribunal said.
At the time of the offending in 2019, Peterson was in her final year of study towards her nursing degree. In 2020 when the offending continued, she was newly registered.
She has since held several nursing roles, and when she was convicted in February 2023, Peterson, then aged 49, was a Māori clinical lead at Te Whānau O Waipareira delivering kaupapa Māori mental wellness services based on 18 traditional Māori systems of psychotherapy and wellness methodology to whānau.
Since April 2024, she has been a Rongoā Māori practitioner at the Auckland City Mission but was understood to no longer be nursing.
In February 2019 Peterson met the victim through a family member who worked at the rest home, and they all became friends.
After the victim suffered an accident in January 2019 it was recommended he go into residential care. He was reluctant, so Peterson moved in to take care of him.
She helped the man with home improvements and other tasks and drove him to various places but she was never employed as a carer, nor was she paid for her assistance.
Peterson reimbursed herself for legitimate expenses made to improve the state of the man’s home and then justified her criminal behaviour on the more than 2000 hours she had spent caring for the man.
In his presence, she made online payments using his bank card but then used the man’s bank accounts to make unauthorised bill payments, transfer funds to her own Kiwibank account and withdraw funds for her expenditure.
She also made unauthorised transactions on his bank cards, leading to more than 130 separate transactions amounting to a total of more than $59,000, according to the summary of facts.
The summary also showed that during their friendship, Peterson obtained an enduring power of attorney over the man’s property.
Peterson was caught when staff at the law firm in charge of the victim’s late father’s estate grew suspicious and reported their concerns to the police.
The law firm had the authority to release funds to the man when they were needed by him for legitimate expenses.
Peterson communicated with the firm on several occasions, then in February 2020, she informed legal staff that the victim wanted to buy a car and asked if they could release money to pay for it.
However, inquiries found that the car in question was registered to Peterson, who owed a substantial amount of money on it.
She was sentenced in February 2023 to seven months of home detention and ordered to pay $25,000 reparation.
She had initially entered not-guilty pleas to the charges, but on the morning of the scheduled trial, she entered guilty pleas to nine charges.
At the time of the tribunal hearing last May, Peterson had paid $14,700 of the reparation and had started weekly payments of $50 to pay off the remainder.
The Professional Conduct Committee, which laid the charge heard by the tribunal, noted Peterson’s previously unblemished record as a nurse and positive character references submitted during the investigation stage.
She took full responsibility for her actions and was said to be deeply remorseful for the distress she had caused the man and her whānau but disagreed he did not know about the transactions.
Peterson told the tribunal that her experience within the criminal justice system had been “extremely traumatic”, and she did not wish to go through anything like it again.
NZME has approached Peterson for comment via her legal representative.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
