An optometrist from the United States will spend a year behind bars for stealing her patients’ wallets and credit cards after dilating their pupils.
The Connecticut Courant reported that 38-year-old optometrist Kristie Katkavich pleaded guilty to three counts of identity theft, six counts of larceny, forgery and obtaining a prescription drug by fraud. The offences were committed in 2010.
The Superior Court was told staff at the Eastern Eye Center in Willimantic, in Connecticut, noticed an increase in the number of female patients, ringing the office to ask if they’d left their wallets or credit cards behind.
Keeping track of the calls, staff realised all the patients had seen Katkavich.
She was arrested after department store surveillance photos showed a person using the stolen cards. The victim identified the person as her optometrist. The woman’s wallet had been snatched while Katkavich dilated the woman’s pupils, the court was told.
Police were able to identify 12 women who were Katkavich’s patients and had lost items during treatment with her.
Katkavich was sentenced to one year in prison. The court allowed Katkavich to remain free while she organised care for her severely autistic three-year-old son. Her sentence will start later this week.
Katkavich still has a licence to practise optometry in Connecticut, although it has recently been inactive, and will not be reactivated after her release from prison.
