Holocaust survivor files NIS 400,000 suit against caretaker

Suspect has previously confessed to stealing NIS 120,000 from 87-year-old's home but actual sum believed to be much higher.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
elderly senior 88.298 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
elderly senior 88.298
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
An 87-year-old Holocaust survivor suffering from Alzheimer's disease filed suit on Sunday against a caretaker suspected of stealing hundreds of thousands of shekels from his home, his attorney said. The elderly Holocaust survivor, Yossef Indig, filed a NIS 400,000 lawsuit in the Rehovot Magistrate's Court against his former caretaker, Dina Pinchas, who worked for him and his late wife for three years between 2001-2004. Pinchas, who was assigned to the elderly couple by the Matav Organization, accredited by Israel's National Insurance Institute as a central provider of caretakers for the elderly, is suspected of stealing hundreds of thousands of shekels from the couple, the claimant's lawyers Lior Tomashin and Binyamin Perlman said. Pinchas has previously confessed to stealing NIS 120,000 from the couple in a criminal suit, but the actual sum is in fact much higher, the attorneys said. The civil suit states that Matav sent the caretaker to work at the elderly couple's home without undertaking the basic background checks into her suitability for the task and without supervising her work. "It emerges that these caretakers are sent to the homes of the sick and helpless without undergoing any checks," the lawyers said. The head of Matav dismissed the allegations against the organization as completely groundless. "Every worker undergoes very thorough checks to determine if they are suitable for the position," said Matav Director-General Rachel Malenky. "The protection of the elderly is our raison d'etre," she added. She noted that the "sad" case was rare in an organization which employs 15,000 caretakers.