A fraudster who stole almost $80,000 from an aged care home has said she is "embarrassed and ashamed beyond words".
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The aged care worker took advantage of vulnerable people who "lacked agency of their own", Justice Belinda Baker said.
"They relied on paid staff of the aged care facility to assist them."
Lory Jane Librando, who worked at the Royal Freemasons Benevolent Institution in Holt, swindled three residents, including a woman with an intellectual disability, out of money over 20 months.
She also forged invoices resulting in the theft of about $48,500 from the business.
Librando carried out the crimes to finance a gambling addiction.
In the ACT Supreme Court, Justice Baker sentenced Librando to a three-year intensive correction order.
Sentencing remarks published on Thursday state a psychologist found Librando's gambling addiction was a coping mechanism to deal with post traumatic stress disorder stemming from a difficult childhood.
Problematic gambling was "a symptom of her trauma condition, rather than a separate gambling disorder", the psychologist stated.
Justice Baker said Librando, who was born and raised in the Philippines, had "a difficult and traumatic upbringing".
The judge found that this reduced Libando's moral culpability, but emphasised it "does not excuse the offending".
"[Librando] was the person primarily responsible for the company's finances, and was afforded a high level of responsibility and trust, both by the company and by the residents. She abused this trust," Justice Baker stated.
In a letter to the court, Librando said she is "embarrassed and ashamed beyond words".
Agreed facts state Librando started working at the aged care home, also known as the Kalparrin Aged Care Facility, in 2012.
She was initially a receptionist but her role expanded to include paying invoices for maintenance and other administrative tasks.
However, it wasn't until 2018, six years later, that she started to defraud her employer and residents alike.
Librando stole almost $17,500 from a woman with an intellectual disability by using her eftpos card to withdraw cash on several occasions.
She also took more than $10,500 from an old man, and made a series of deposits back into his bank account over several months.
She deposited $8740 into the man's account, before the crimes came to the attention of her employer and the police.
In August 2019, Librando stole $380 from another male resident by making cash withdrawals, but his daughter soon noticed two unusual transactions.
The daughter, who had power of attorney, was able to view CCTV footage of the ATM transactions and identified the person as an employee of the aged care home.
Librando was stood down from work, and the business engaged a forensic accountant who uncovered the other crimes.
Between January 2018 and August 2019, Librando created 43 fraudulent invoices by making a stamp with her boss' signature on it.
The nursing home then paid these fraudulent invoices into Librando and her husband's joint bank account.
The money stolen came to a total of $76,941.
