Ethiopian Carer Stole From Elderly Again - Court Refuses Deportation

STOCKHOLM - First she drained 61,000 kronor from the bank account of an elderly man she was paid to look after. She got a suspended sentence. A few months later, working for a new home-care company, she was pawning a frail couple's family silver. Now a Stockholm court has given the 50-year-old Ethiopian national nine months in prison for aggravated theft - but refused the prosecutor's request to deport her.

The woman, Asmeret Ghebermedhin, came to Sweden at the age of ten and never became a Swedish citizen. Under Swedish law that should have made deportation an option. The court agreed the legal conditions were met. It said no anyway.

The Knives That Gave Her Away

In January this year, two siblings were clearing out their parents' flat in the Gärdet area of Stockholm after the couple had moved into a care home. A large set of antique silver cutlery was missing from a locked cabinet. Only a few knives had been left behind. Silver bowls, cufflinks and a gold watch the father had received after 50 years of service were also gone.

There were no signs of a break-in. In their final months at home, the parents had needed home-care visits up to six or seven times a day, and at night.

An auction-house valuer identified the cutlery as an early 1900s pattern carrying a family monogram. Days later, he happened to spot matching pieces listed on the website of a Stockholm pawnshop - with exactly the knives missing that had been left in the flat.

Police traced the pawned silver to the couple's regular carer from the private home-care firm Adonis Omsorg AB. Records showed she had pawned silver from the home on three occasions in June, July and August 2025, borrowing a total of 38,000 kronor against it.

"She Said Her Children Wouldn't Want It"

Questioned by police, Ghebermedhin denied stealing anything. She claimed the elderly woman had handed her the silver as a farewell gift before moving to the care home.

The woman she named was, according to her son, practically blind from glaucoma, very hard of hearing, in a wheelchair and showing clear signs of advanced dementia. She needed help with almost everything, from getting dressed to eating. Her husband had a diagnosed dementia illness.

Ghebermedhin admitted her employer banned staff from accepting gifts from clients, and that she had told no one at work about the silver. Asked why she took it anyway, she replied: "I don't know." She also told police she owed around 300,000 kronor to the Swedish Enforcement Authority, the state debt-collection agency, but denied that the money was the motive.

Stockholm District Court dismissed her account as "a pure after-the-fact construction" and convicted her of aggravated theft, citing the ruthless abuse of her position as a carer inside the victims' own home.

Suspended Sentence - Then She Struck Again

It was not her first case. In March 2024, while employed by another home-care company, she used an elderly client's phone to make seven unauthorised mobile payments from his bank account to her own over four days - 61,000 kronor in total.

In February 2025 she was convicted of fraud. Because she had no previous record, the court settled for a suspended sentence and a fine, writing that there was "no particular reason to fear that she will continue to commit crimes."

Four months later, she pawned the first batch of the couple's silver. It is not clear from the court documents whether her new employer knew about her conviction, or what background checks, if any, were carried out before she was hired.

Why She Stays

The prosecutor asked for her to be deported and banned from returning for five years. The court accepted that the general conditions for deportation were fulfilled, but ruled that her ties to Sweden were too strong: she arrived before the age of 15, has an adult child and relatives in the country, and is considered established in Swedish society.

That she has lived here for more than 35 years without ever applying for citizenship did not change the outcome.

Besides the prison sentence, she must pay 20,000 kronor in damages to each of the elderly victims and repay the pawnshop 38,000 kronor. Including the earlier fraud case, she has now been ordered to pay a total of 139,000 kronor. The verdict can be appealed to the Svea Court of Appeal.