Carer jailed for eight years for violent burglaries of pensioners in which she stole €34,000

A CARER HAS been jailed for eight years after she preyed on six vulnerable pensioners she previously nursed, stole €34,000 and carried out violent burglaries with a knife-armed college student.

Precious Moyo, 38, who lived at the Athlone Accommodation Center at Lissywollen, Athlone, Co. Westmeath, and was originally from Zimbabwe, was sentenced at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court today.

Her accomplice, 20-year-old engineering student Yamen Alhamada, from Syria but with an address at Warren Grove, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, was imprisoned for six years.

They had pleaded guilty to a spate of burglary and aggravated burglary offences described by Judge Keenan Johnson as heartbreaking and callous.

“Lock them up for a long time because they are evil,” were the words of one of the victims.

Judge Keenan Johnson said Moyo, a mother of three, had worked for a home help agency for a year, where she developed “intimate” knowledge about the households of the six elderly men and women aged 73 to 89 suffering from serious health problems.

Judge Johnson had said he could not express his horror at the pair’s actions and emphasised that the offences were callous, breached the victims’ trust, leaving them isolated, vulnerable and terrified.

He accepted the Moyo was the main offender in the premeditated crimes which represented a fundamental of trust and she had abused her position in a most appalling way. Their crimes happened after Moyo was let go from an agency following complaints.

Sentencing, Judge Johnson said the court had to send out a message and it was clear victims were traumatised, and their “crime spree” resulted permanent life changes with some no longer living independently others in “constant fear”.

Their crimes damaged the reputation of genuine refugees the vast majority of whom, he stressed, were law abiding and contributed to Irish society. He added that he did not want people to highlight this case as being indicative of refugees.

Relieved victims and their families watched the proceedings via video link.

Accomplice Alhamada, who had come to Ireland with family to escape the war in his country, claimed to gardai that he went along with Moyo because she was “into black magic called juju, and he would be protected if he did what she said.”

Judge Johnson had also directed that €35,000 from fines imposed in a recent unrelated health and safety prosecution should go to the victims.

Probation reports and character references on the duo, who had no prior convictions, were furnished to the court.

The defence pleaded with Judge Johnson to note the early guilty pleas avoided a substantial trial with around 100 witnesses and further traumatisation of the elderly victims. Counsel submitted the court could give a 30 per cent reduced sentence because they had expressed remorse for assaulting and “terrorising” the victims and had the prospect of rehabilitation.

In mitigation pleas, the court heard Moyo moved to Ireland five years ago to escape a violent marriage, and isolation from family led to depression and drug addiction, and she “never thought about the victims and what this distorted deviancy would do to them.”

Her father’s death when she was 13 also impacted her, and there were claims of abuse by older men in her community, and she had suffered serious health problems.

Alhamada had experienced trauma from the war in Syria when he was a child. After moving to Ireland with his family, he performed well in school, played GAA and soccer, and went to college in Athlone.

But he “spiralled out of control” from cannabis and alcohol abuse that led to a €12,000 drug debt with pressure to pay, and he “never thought of the victims of these offences when he was committing them”.

Neither defendant addressed the court or showed any emotion.

One of the victims passed away three months after they pleaded guilty.

Four incidents occurred in housing estates in Athlone and another at a house about five kilometres outside the town between June 14 and September 8 last year.

The judge praised the “massive” and “painstaking” investigation that led to their arrest.
The probe involved harvesting crucial CCTV footage from various locations to track their movements around the town and analysing fingerprints and DNA. One segment of video footage showed Moyo holding wads of money in a shop.

Garda Detectives Niall Cogavin and Kenneth Nerney outlined the evidence against the pair.

The court heard the victims were traumatised; three of them were attacked in their homes, and the former carer “menacingly” warned one, “We’ll be back”.

Earlier, the court heard the first incident was at the house of a woman aged 73.
Wearing a high-vis top and covid facemask, Moyo hung around her home for two hours before sneaking in and taking a handbag containing €24,000.

Moyo, who claims to have been a social worker before she came to Ireland in 2019, jogged to a taxi and went home.

The court heard Moyo “put the fear of God into her”; her victim constantly locks her house now, and her life changed dramatically.

Her sister stated that she had to move in full-time because the victim was now “so afraid”.

“This money was to be used for our funerals. My sister’s heart and my own heart are now broken; now we are so worried as to how we will pay for our funerals.”

Just €2,250 of the missing money was recovered and will be dispersed among the victims.

A niece told the court the financial loss and psychological effects were huge. Her aunt, she said, was vulnerable but had a good quality of life before this, collecting her pension and going to the shops, but now “is effectively a prisoner in her own home.”

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On August 30, Moyo drove Alhamada to the house of another woman, aged 89, with advanced dementia.

He knocked and told her he was looking for a missing person. She let him check the house, believing he was a garda, but he stole her handbag, which contained over €200, and bank cards.

The youth fled and was picked up by Moyo.

The victim’s son represented her in court. He provided an impact statement saying she already had money stolen by a carer, and this breach of trust added to her vulnerability and insecurity.

Two days later, at 7 pm, Moyo, wearing a wig, surgical gloves and mask, drove Alhamada in her Nissan Qashqai to the home of another former client.

Disguised in a hard hat and a COVID mask, the student tricked a 76-year-old widow into thinking he needed to check for a leak. He was let in, but a lodger disturbed him when he went upstairs and fled empty-handed.

The court heard that after losing her husband previously, the victim had cancer treatment and took in a lodger because she was lonely. However, the incident frightened her, leaving her constantly checking if anyone was at the door, and she got rid of her home carers.

She said, “I’ve lost trust in people and am suspicious of people.”

At around 5 am on September 2, they drove out of the town to the home of an 80-year-old man with mobility issues who lives alone but close to relatives.

He awoke to the sound of glass breaking; Moyo had a wheel jack to smash their way in. The two intruders entered his bedroom and shouted at him to hand over his money.

Detective Garda Cogavin said, “He was held by his arms by Yamen Alhamada, who pulled off his panic alarm from around his wrist. He was then pulled onto the ground and held down there”.

The pensioner tried to get up, but Alhamada hit him with an unknown object, and he started bleeding heavily from his nose.

The court heard Alhamada “pierced his arms a number of times with what he believed to have been a needle concealed in his glove.”

The two raiders stayed in the house for about 30 minutes “and went through my deceased wife’s things”.

They left with €200 from a wallet and also took some jewellery that had belonged to the pensioner’s late wife and “her [Moyo's] last words were we’ll be back”.

The victim, who has COPD, needs to take 12 tablets a day and has balance problems. He was bleeding but managed to get next door to alert relatives, but due to his condition, it took a while to get there. Doorbell video footage showed him distraught and gasping as he said, “I’ve been broken into”.

Gardaí confirmed his home was ransacked and found “pools of blood on the bedroom floor”.

Medical reports showed he had injuries on his arms, including large bruises, two cuts five to six centimetres long on his arms, and a nasal bridge injury.

In his victim impact statement, he spoke about being “constantly afraid” someone would break into the house he built 50 years ago to raise his family.

Since then, he has had a high-tech alarm system installed, but “I don’t know how to use it, and I set it off regularly, and my son and daughter arrive, and I feel bad for bringing them out.”

He begged the judge to “Lock them up for a long time because they are evil”.

The final incident happened on September 8 when a man with dementia and his partner, in their 80s, had €10,000 violently stolen by the two defendants who broke into their home in the town.

Alhamada was armed with a five-inch flick knife, and Moyo showed “intimate knowledge” of the layout of the house, the occupants and their possessions.

The teenager, in a wig, mask and dress, grabbed the elderly woman by her throat and dragged her to the floor, resulting in a cut to the side of her ear as he shouted, “Where’s the money?”

Meanwhile, Moyo put her hand over the man’s mouth, restricting his breathing, and directed the teenager to remove the woman’s wrist alarm.

In her impact statement, the senior citizen revealed that she and her partner lost trust, fearing it would happen again.

They had since moved to separate nursing homes, she said, “and I miss him dearly”.
Following the arrest, Alhamada confessed to gardaí that he earned €2,500 from the crimes, which he spent on “weed” and a pellet gun.

He told the investigation team, “Precious Moyo was into black magic called juju, and he would be protected if he did what she said.” He said Moyo made him use the knife, and he was afraid of her. The court heard she had told him they would not get caught because she would have a dream about a dog if gardaí were coming for them.

In her interviews, Moyo “made no admissions”.

The court heard that all the victims were clients of the same care agency. Moyo had worked for them for a year and provided home help services to the victims from April to June 2023.

Gardaí accepted that cannabis addict Alhamada was the “junior partner”.

Moyo’s sentence was nine years; Alhamada received seven year but both had 12 months suspended on condition they did not offend for five years post release and remain on supervised probation for 18 months.

Their sentences were backdated to September 2023.

Moyo, who appeared via video link, spoke only to ask for her sentence to be explained and said “Yes, I understand”.