LARGO - A former nursing home caregiver has been sentenced to probation for using a patient's credit card to charge more than $4,000.
Margaret D. Payne, 42, pleaded no contest to an elderly exploitation charge this week. She was sentenced to one year of probation. She also was ordered to pay restitution, the amount of which will be determined at a hearing next month.
Payne was working at Oak Manor Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center in Largo in 2003, where she cared for a 62-year-old woman in a wheelchair. The patient gave Payne her credit card, asking her to buy her things at local grocery and drug stores, police said. But Payne used the card to buy more than $4,000 worth of merchandise for herself, police said.
The victim reported the theft about 10 days after Payne was fired from the facility for unrelated reasons.
