April 06, 2010
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News: Politician Steals From Paraplegic
What's going on in Nova Scotia? Lawmakers are elected to watch over and protect the interests of its nation's citizens. However, a paraplegic alleges that his caregiver, who used to work for the Nova Scotia legislature, used his credit card to rack up over $10,000 in unauthorized transactions. According to Scott Marshall, his caregiver Trevor Zinck used the credit card to pay for his gambling debt on an online game. Marshall and his mother claims that in 2007 Zinck admitted to using the credit card and said he would pay the money back, but has not done so.
Marshall, who has cerebral palsy said the two had been friends for over 20 years and he had loaned Zinck his credit card to pay for small incidentals; however, he never gave Zinck permission to use the card to fund his online gambling activities. In an interview with CBC, Marshall said he trusted Zinck and since he had a good paying job, Marshall never dreamed he would use the credit card in this manner. Marshall also said he realized that he too did not manage the situation very well. After being confronted, Zinck apologized to Marshall and said he would reimburse him for the charges. For a short time period, Zinck was making payment; however, that soon ended. When Zinck had stopped being Marshall's caregiver, he also stopped the reimbursement payments. To date, Zinck still owes Marshall over $7,600.
In a separate incident, Zinck was suspended from the NDP caucus for misconduct relating to the reimbursement of unpaid bills in his constituency's office. According to Zinck, he was late paying his utilities and internet bills because of personal responsibilities in caring for his father. Zinck was open about his problem and readily admitted to the CBC that he did in fact use Marshall's credit card because his problems led him to drinking and gambling.