Nurse ordered struck off for exploiting 99-year-old care-home resident

A nursing disciplinary panel has ordered Rebecca Louise Burwood to be struck off after finding that she exploited a 99-year-old care-home resident for personal and financial gain over several years. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) found that Burwood, a former deputy manager at Bryn Yr Haul Care Home in Mold, Flintshire, used her position of trust to obtain the woman’s house and money. [1]

The panel found all six charges against Burwood proved. Its findings included withdrawing money for her own use, obtaining ownership of the resident’s home and a £20,000 payment for a car through manipulation or coercion, and dishonestly failing to tell her employer that she held financial power of attorney for the woman. The panel described her behaviour between 2017 and 2023 as a “sustained, calculated course of conduct”. [1]

Burwood said the woman, whom she had known before she entered the home, treated her like a granddaughter and had willingly given her gifts. She also said she withdrew cash at the resident’s request, including for regular charitable donations, but had kept no records of those donations. The panel rejected her account that she had not taken advantage of the woman. It considered evidence that the resident had agreed to give her the house and to pay for a vehicle, but was shocked by the wider spending from her account and had not agreed to its scale. [1]

BBC News reported the case as a £750,000 theft and said Burwood spent money on cosmetic surgery. The NMC decision does not establish that precise sum as money stolen by Burwood: it refers to an allegation that she took £370,000 and to a house estimated at £400,000, while records of more than £370,000 leaving the resident’s account also involve a second person with financial power of attorney. Burwood disputed the house’s estimated value at the time of its transfer. The decision describes spending on Burwood’s cosmetic surgery as an allegation, not a proved charge; she said cosmetic operations were paid for by the other attorney. [1] [2]

Police investigated but took no further action because the resident did not want to make a complaint. She has since died. The NMC’s findings are disciplinary findings made on the balance of probabilities, not a criminal conviction for theft.