A lawyer who stole more than $86,000 from her quadriplegic client was imprisoned yesterday for five years.

Nancy Vieira, 45, from Pembroke, was convicted of dishonestly obtaining a $50,000 money transfer from Kirsten Badenduck between January and July 2016.

She was further convicted of stealing $28,615 from Ms Badenduck through unauthorised ATM withdrawals and $7,601 through unauthorised debit card transactions between August 2015 and October 2016.

Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe said that Ms Badenduck, who died in 2019, took Vieira as a “knight in shining armour” when she hired her to help her with her affairs.

“However, the evidence in this case showed that the defendant exploited the good nature of Ms Badenduck and the disorganised state of Ms Badenduck’s financial affairs,” Mr Justice Wolffe said.

“Rather than be the saviour Ms Badenduck needed, the defendant turned out to be the villain. One can only imagine the emotional and mental anguish that Ms Badenduck must have went through in the final years of her life.

“The defendant was someone she trusted, and her devastation upon learning what the defendant did to her must have been deeply and profoundly heartbreaking.”

Ms Badenduck was an insurance executive who became a champion for the disabled after a 2002 traffic collision left her confined to a wheelchair.

The court heard that in June 2015, Vieira had been tasked with terminating a caregiver suspected of stealing from Ms Badenduck and assisting police with their investigation.

Jaqueline MacLellan, Vieira’s employer at the time, said she understood that the work was completed in early 2016, but Ms Badenduck contacted her in November that year to complain about Vieira.

Among the complaints, Ms Badenduck told Ms MacLellan that she had loaned Vieira $50,000 to help her to secure a junior partnership at the firm MacLellan and Associates.

Ms MacLellan said she had never discussed partnership with Vieira and had no intention of doing so.

Vieira was terminated, but in December 2016 she returned to MacLellan and Associates to deliver bank drafts for $25,000 and $15,000 intended to repay part of the loan and cover cash withdrawals for tasks that she did not complete.

Ms Badenduck told officers in a police interview recorded before her death that she had given Vieira power of attorney and access to her bank accounts.

She said Vieira never showed her copies of her bank statements, but acknowledged that she had never asked for them.

The court heard of multiple cash withdrawals, purchases and money transfers made from Ms Badenduck’s account to Vieira’s.

Vieira — who represented herself during the trial — told the court that all the transactions were made with Ms Badenduck’s knowledge and permission.

She also accepted that she had borrowed the money from Ms Badenduck under the pretext of using it to secure a partnership, but said that it had been her honest intention at the time to propose the partnership to Ms MacLellan.

Vieira claimed that months later her situation changed and that she had spoken with Ms Badenduck about putting the funds towards the mortgage on a property after a conflict had arisen with the bank.

However, the jury delivered a unanimous guilty verdict on all three counts after about five hours of deliberation.

Nicole Smith, for the Crown, told the court this afternoon that Vieira was an “insidious rogue” who had committed an egregious and disgraceful breach of trust.

“The defendant went and committed the very offence she was supposed to protect and guard against for the benefit of her client,” she said.

She recommended a sentence of no less than five years behind bars for the charge related to the $50,000 money transfer, along with sentences of four years and three years for the stealing offences.

Ms Smith further called for the first sentence to run consecutively to others, which would have resulted in a total sentence of nine years behind bars.

Mark Pettingill, who represented Vieira at sentencing, said the proposed sentence was “way over the top”, suggesting a total sentence of three to five years would be more suitable.

He also urged the court to consider the lasting impact that the conviction would have on the defendant.

“The impact of a finding of guilt on an individual for matters of this ilk in this jurisdiction is a loss of everything that a person might have had by way of reputation,” Mr Pettingill said.

“It’s a loss of good standing that carries on well down the road and it’s a fundamental loss of any type of opportunity to work in any way in this profession again.”

Vieira herself maintained her innocence, but expressed regret and remorse for the impact the matter has had on her family and the late Ms Badenduck herself.

“I have lost everything. Everything I have worked for, the years I put into my career, reputation, trust, friends, even family and this has had a huge impact on my family relationships,” she said.

Vieira said she wished she had had the opportunity to sit with Ms Badenduck to explain what had happened before she had died, but she did not.

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