the times | Thursday January 13 2022 25
News
UKNIPAddict paramedics stole
drugs from the dying
worked in tandem, with one research-
ing the addresses and sending details to
the other who would visit and steal the
medication.
Referring to the drugs as “sweets”,
they exchanged WhatsApp messages
discussing who they should target next
then turned up at the address wearing
the uniforms.
After the couple’s arrest, officers
searched their home and found medi-
cation bearing the names of other
people, as well as nurses’ uniforms.
They had also stolen NHS computer
equipment and an ultrasound machine
valued at £14,000.
The pair abused access to patient
records on the NHS computer system
through their work as paramedics with
the South East Coast Ambulance Ser-
vice, targeting patients in Thanet, Can-
terbury, Whitstable, Faversham and
Herne Bay.
Their offending came to light last
August when Kent police began receiv-
ing similar reports of distraction bur-
glaries. Lambert and Silvester were
arrested on August 4 at their home in
Margate, Kent, in relation to a burglary
in the town two days earlier.
An examination of the calls system
showed Silvester’s login details were
used 1,847 times in three months to
access the NHS computer system and
review calls. The women also kept a
diary, logging addresses visited, the
medication available and any notes of
interest, such as if they were refused
entry. Many of the victims were not
aware of any wrongdoing until the
police arrived and made inquiries.
Lambert and Silvester were jailed for
five years each yesterday after admit-
ting conspiring to burgle and conspir-
ing to commit theft. At Canterbury
crown court Judge Rupert Lowe
described their actions as an
“extraordinarily callous and uncaring
form of exploitation of the most vulner-
able people — often when they were
terminally ill or dying, or in some cases
when they had actually died.”
The judge said the women had be-
come addicted to the drugs after using
them to treat pain, adding: “Being
dependent on the opiate drugs you
realised that there were a lot of these
drugs on prescription which peopleneeded, particularly in end-of-life palli-
ative care. And you had between you
access to information which could lead
you to the names and addresses of per-
sons who had these items.”
Detective Sergeant Jay Robinson,
from Kent police’s crime squad, said:
“These offences were an astonishing
abuse of position. Many of their victims
have since passed away and will never
know that justice has been done.”John Simpson Crime Correspondent
Jessica Silvester, left, and Ruth Lambert, who were engaged, posed as nursesTwo paramedics who were engaged to
be married have been jailed for posing
as nurses to steal painkillers from dying
and vulnerable patients.
Ruth Lambert, 33, and Jessica Silves-
ter, 29, also abused access to patient
records and took nurses’ uniforms.
In three cases the couple — who
were feeding their drug habits — tar-
geted the medicine of patients who had
recently died. They also carried out
multiple thefts from the ambulance
service between 2018 and 2021.
Colin Singleton said they came to his
home the day his wife of 30 years,
Linda, died of cancer. “Within five
hours of my wife’s death someone
phoned me from the district nurses,” he
said. “I couldn’t believe they would be
so callous as to phone me so quickly but
they put me under pressure to come
around and collect the drugs.
“They were there within five min-
utes. They asked for more [and] when I
gave them some of them, I was so
annoyed I basically told them to go
away, or words to that effect.”
The couple committed at least 25
burglaries from December 2020. They
Silvester, left, and Lambert worked
for the ambulance service. They used
NHS data to target the terminally ill
and families of the recently bereaved
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