Eunice, the caregiver who stole 45,000 euros from Máximo for eight years, a man who cannot take care of himself

Eunice admitted it in the Provincial Court of Toledo, where she coincided with her victim, a very vulnerable person who is in a wheelchair. Although he eats alone, he can hardly move, he is one-eyed and desperately needs the help of third parties.

A Nicaraguan married to an Ecuadorian, the accused also locked eyes in the lobby with María Antonia Moral, Máximo’s niece and one of the relatives who uncovered the cake at Christmas 2018. «My uncle did not call us on the phone, nor did I. sister or me, on December 30th or 31st; I couldn’t contact him on January 1st either and I thought: ‘Something strange is happening here’», she told ABC, who is also president of the Association of Victims of Sanitary Negligence (Avinesa).

Then they phoned the Social Services of the Olías del Rey City Council, a town very close to the capital Toledo, and “the social worker told us that my uncle was sick and in bed.” That’s why on January 3, Antonia and her sister went to see him and at the house they found the unpleasant surprise that there were Eunice’s relatives living there. And so It wasn’t the worst. «Máximo was in a pitiful, dirty condition, with long hair and nails; very dirty clothes. My uncle smelled terrible; The smell it gave off was horrible. And the lady said that she worked several hours a day,” Antonia described to this newspaper about the deplorable state of abandonment of the house.

Seeing that horrendous panorama, they spoke to the social worker and she told them that Máximo “had not wanted to go to a nursing home nor did he manage to be incapacitated.” The two sisters left “very upset” and returned on January 8. While they were talking to Máximo, a debt collector arrived and opened their eyes. “He said that my uncle had bought a lady’s watch, a tablet, a mobile phone, some encyclopedias, some saucepans and even an armchair that he couldn’t fit into because he was so fat,” the niece continues.

Then they looked at Máximo’s bank account and saw a withdrawal of more than 2,000 euros with a bank card in July 2018. “The woman responded that they had painted,” Antonia reproduces.

They admitted his uncle to a residence, where a report indicates that Máximo was “in a precarious state at a hygienic level.” His hair had not been washed and had not been cut for several months, in addition to a beard of several days that “was also impressive.” The feet had “marked dirt,” while the reddened abdominal folds gave off a “bad smell”. “They were mushrooms,” Antonia emphasizes.

Her uncle always had people working for him and they believed that Eunice had been sent by the Olías del Rey City Council “because that is what he told us. And that’s why we were relaxed.

A traffic accident at 20 years old

Máximo has suffered from brain dysfunction since New Year’s 1977, when he was 20 years old, due to a very serious traffic accident in which a passenger died. The accident left him with neurological consequences and hemiplegia, as well as paranoid schizophrenia and agoraphobia.which is the fear of going out.

He barely had contact with the outside world nor cultivated social relationships. It is not known very well how Eunice came into his life. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, at the beginning of September 2011, the man had contacted the woman to take care of him and carry out the necessary domestic work at home. His remuneration would be 600 euros. “Apparently, he did offer her a contract, but she told him no because she was receiving benefits,” says Arash Mottaghi, Máximo’s lawyer.

Since he never left the house, he authorized Eunice to make certain withdrawals of money from his checking account, operating at ATMs with the credit card or the passbook of which the man was the owner. To do this, he provided the PIN number and the necessary passwords.

Nevertheless, Eunice could only withdraw the agreed salary monthly, as well as pay personal and food expenses. or of another nature but derived strictly from domestic work. Even so, “there were withdrawals of a lot of money, for a total amount of 45,000 euros, from 2011 to January 2019 without Máximo’s consent.” Eunice also handled stock shares that the victim had been left by her parents. Although “it is not known how she sold them” through the victim’s bank, the truth is that “from there she got the money she needed,” adds the lawyer.

Meanwhile, food was paid for in a supermarket with the bank card, with weekly purchases as striking as four dozen eggs, eight kilos of rice, women’s sanitary pads or car air fresheners. Likewise, the vehicle tank was filled with fuel, watches and women’s clothing were purchased. Even the aforementioned tablet and phone; or shopping at a hamburger restaurant in Toledo’s Plaza de Zocodover, at a pizzeria at the Luz del Tajo Shopping Center or at a steakhouse in Olías del Rey.

As for Máximo’s house, it was also used as a home for Eunice’s relatives, who in turn rented rooms to fairies who went to Toledo, “unbeknownst to Máximo,” the lawyer points out. Likewise, family members and other foreigners were registered at this address, where Antonia also found food from the Food Bank. “Her husband, her stepchildren and her daughter, as well as the worker herself, were registered there, without my uncle’s permission.” Furthermore, “in order to legalize foreigners,” a relative did so as a “professional cyclist,” reveals the niece.

“She had been pregnant for two days and said that we had kicked her out for that”

The plot was discovered, and when she and her sister decided to take her uncle to a nursing home, Eunice denounced them and asked for 45,000 euros in compensation because “she had been pregnant for two days and said that we had kicked her out for that.”

At this point, Antonia clarifies that «in 2015 my uncle did register her with Social Security, but she voluntarily registered. An inspector called me and my uncle had to pay for the years he had not contributed for her, but he was not fined due to the circumstances in which it had occurred.

At the time, Eunice had declared before the Civil Guard that “she took money out to give it to him and then her relatives came and asked her for money. “It was his alibi.” However, Máximo “doesn’t know how to handle bills,” says Antonia, who was asked this morning what they are for. Finally, the now convicted woman did not use this pretext at the hearing, accepting a sentence of 22 months in prison and the payment of 45,000 euros to her victim.

“I am satisfied that she has acknowledged her guilt”Antonia confesses after saying goodbye to her uncle, who arrived and left for her residence in an ambulance for which her nieces paid 140 euros.