Last week (2 July), A Current Affair ran a piece about an event that occurred in a retirement village in 2008. They did not explain why it warranted TV coverage in 2015.

The story highlighted the need for retirement village operators to be alert to issues raised by residents, as the residents could be giving the operators important information.

It told how former criminologist, Gwenyth Jones, was living in a Victorian retirement village and she suspected she was being robbed by staff.

When she reported her suspicions to management, she said they dismissed her claims. "They thought I had dementia - and for that reason I was a trouble-maker and I would have been making it up," she said on A Current Affair.

To gain proof of the thefts, she installed a hidden camera and recorded videos of a worker taking cash from her wallet. Jones took her evidence of the theft to police. The employee was dismissed by the operator in 2008 and convicted of theft and burglary in 2011.

The two points out of this story are that operators should be more cautious and respectful in dismissing resident approaches, and A Current Affair would appear to never let common sense get in the way of a muckraking story that makes ‘good’ TV.

The operator was named in the TV piece and had to respond – seven years after the event.

To see the story on A Current Affair, visit here.

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