Court records show a Winnipeg woman facing multiple charges in what city police called a “very, very horrible” case of animal cruelty was also convicted twice of fraud under $5,000 while working as a caregiver homemade.
Chad Kabecz, 40, and Irene Lima, 55, were arrested Oct. 9 after police executed a search warrant at a home in Winnipeg’s Lord Roberts neighborhood and charged with multiple offenses, including killing or injuring an animal and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal – Winnipeg police said earlier this month.
According to audio recordings of district court proceedings, Irene Lima was sentenced to a year of house arrest in 2014 after pleading guilty to forging checks that she stole from a 92-year-old woman for whom she was a homemaker.
The court heard from Lima during the time she worked for Realcare Inc. and was hired to provide home care services to the woman.
Lima wrote seven checks to herself using the woman’s checkbook without her knowledge, the court heard.
Lima then met with her employer and claimed the checks were gifts, before being told she was not allowed to accept gifts, the court heard.
Lima pleaded guilty to fraud under $5,000 and theft of $4,900.
“I can’t imagine what would possess you if you decided today that you were going to start robbing a 92-year-old customer,” provincial court Judge Carena Roller said at the time.
“There is no one more vulnerable than a 92-year-old woman who is thousands of miles from her immediate family.”
Roller also said that “people who take advantage of the vulnerable are especially disgusting.”
“It’s just heartbreaking”
Lima appeared in court again in 2018, where she pleaded guilty to defrauding a 78-year-old woman with dementia while working for VIP Home Care Inc.
The tribunal heard that Lima was the woman’s home carer from November 2015 to October 2016 and cared for her every day for approximately 40-45 hours a week.
The victim’s daughter noticed that her mother’s credit card had a balance of more than $2,000 and knew that her mother was unable to make such transactions, according to court records.
The court heard from the woman’s daughter who testified to Lima, who admitted she used the card to make fraudulent purchases. Court records show Lima collected more than $2,000 from personal purchases made on the woman’s credit card.
Lima received a two-year conditional sentence.
When contacted by CBC News last week, the woman’s daughter said news of Lima’s arrest earlier this month “has caused her a lot of stress” as she recovers from radiation treatment.
CBC is not naming her because it fears repercussions from the accused.
The woman said she tried to avoid stress during her recovery, but everyone she knew was “sending articles about Irene (Lima) because everyone knows what she did to my mom.”
The woman also said she was furious that Lima did not face a harsher punishment for what she did to her mother.
“It’s just heartbreaking,” she said.
At a hearing last week, Kabecz was released on bail with conditions requiring him to stay with his family and have no contact with Lima or any animals. There is also no Internet access. He is due back in court early next month.
Lima also appeared in court last week, but remains in custody as her case was remanded and postponed.
None of the charges brought against Kabecz and Lima in connection with the animal cruelty case have been proven in court.
