A court in Victoria sentenced a doctor who had defrauded patients of hundreds of thousands by pretending the funds would go toward treatment for his suffering from cancer father and instead had used the money to finance his gambling habits.
Loans from Patients Used for Gambling
Abraham Stephanson, 50, from south-west Victoria was given three years jail time with a non-parole period of 18 months for scamming his patients for AU$800,000 ($523,000) to finance his online gambling, reported Australian media ABC News.
Stephanson heard his sentence in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday after admitting to using his father’s terminal cancer diagnosis to ask for loans from his patients. Judge George Georgiou described his behavior as a “gross breach of trust.”
“It is clear that your conduct has had a profound impact on each of your victims,” the judge stated emphasizing the word ‘trust’ which was to be seen in almost all of the impact statements made by his victims who feel foolish for having let him prey on their sympathy and taking him at his word.
The court heard the impact statements of his victims in which 19 of them felt that they had been betrayed and their trust violated, angry with themselves for being so naïve and gullible. Most of them stated that they would hardly ever trust properly again after what had happened.
Victims Felt ‘Foolish’ and ‘Gullible’
One of Stephanson’s defrauded patients said that she had agreed to provide help as her own father had died of cancer, while another had his wife gravely ill at the moment and the deception had exacerbated her condition during the last moments of her life.
Between 2019 and 2020, Stephanson accepted payments ranging from AU$5,000 ($3,270) to AU$120,000 ($78,000) from 18 patients and a pharmacy employee. One of the victims was about to retire soon and withdrew money from his superannuation while others gave their life savings.
Stephanson targeted his patients by sending emails and texts to individuals and couples to ask for loans, claiming that the money was needed for his father’s treatment in another country: China, America or Israel.
Outlining his intention to repay the loans, the doctor provided his victims with loan agreements that were missing any terms or conditions, preying on their naivety and trust. The funds he received were redirected toward his account with a sports betting operator and in one instance used as a mortgage payment.
Prior to his arrest, he managed to repay AU$190,418 ($124,533) and as of August, more than AU$620,000 remain outstanding, including to a victim who had passed away in the meantime.