B.C. care aide pleads guilty to multiple counts of fraud in case involving elderly patients

A care aide in Surrey, B.C., has pleaded guilty to 34 crimes — including fraud and identity theft — after RCMP slapped her with dozens of charges related to her care of elderly patients earlier this year.

Ana Marie Lat Chamdal, who was born in 1992, pleaded guilty in Surrey Provincial Court on Tuesday, after first being charged last July.

Chamdal pleaded guilty to charges including fraud over $5,000, identity fraud, theft of credit cards and possession of a forged document.

She will be sentenced at her next court appearance on Jan. 12, with a spokesperson for the B.C. Prosecution Service confirming she is currently in custody.

Care aides are also known as health-care assistants, or HCAs. They provide personal care in a variety of health-care settings, like hospitals and assisted living facilities, or in the community.

In B.C., HCAs are not regulated or governed by any regulatory body as doctors, nurses and other health professionals are.

In a February email, Fraser Health said it had no record of anyone by her name ever being employed by the health authority.

Investigation began last summer

Prosecutors swore the first six charges against Chamdal last July. Dozens of other charges were levied in February this year.

A statement from Surrey RCMP in July 2022 said the investigation began when officers in Richmond received a report in June that a wallet had been stolen from a 96-year old man’s home in the city.

Credit and debit cards from his wallet were being fraudulently used in Surrey and neighbouring Delta.

Financial crime investigators identified Chamdal as a suspect. She’d been hired to help care for the elderly man, but allegedly stole his wallet and used his cards instead, the statement said.

RCMP said the charges involved 19 victims, with the majority of the fraud cases occurring in Surrey.