A 30-year-old woman was sentenced Thursday to just under one to two years in jail for stealing $17,000 from a Bristol Township cancer patient she was caring for and using some of the money to put into her boyfriend’s inmate account at the Bucks County Correctional Facility.

Kelly Nichole Sharkey, of Bristol, pleaded guilty in September to access device fraud and theft by unlawful taking and was sentenced Thursday by Common Pleas Judge Diane Gibbons to one year less a day to two years less a day in county jail.

Sharkey was also sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $17,421.19 in restitution to the victim and two banks.

The victim, who was a friend of Sharkey’s grandmother, said in a victim impact statement that the theft made it hard for her to trust anyone.

The victim reported the theft to the Bristol Township Police Department on Nov. 26, 2019, after finding several unauthorized transactions on her accounts.

As part of her treatment of tongue cancer, the victim had part of her tongue removed, making it difficult for her to speak and run errands, so she hired Sharkey in late May or early June 2019 to help her out.

The victim gave Sharkey her debit card and credit card to make household purchases but never gave her authorization to use it for personal spending. The victim discovered the unauthorized purchases the week before Thanksgiving 2019 and confronted Sharkey who denied making them.

Bristol Township Police Detective William O’Keefe obtained records from the victim’s banks and reviewed surveillance footage from two Wawa locations and a tobacco shop, which showed Sharkey making the unauthorized transactions.

A review of the bank records found that Sharkey made 50 unauthorized transactions for $3,720 on the victim’s credit card from June to December 2019 and $13,701.19 in unauthorized transactions on the victim’s debit card from June 21, 2019 to Nov. 22, 2019.

Some of the credit card transactions were used to put money in a Bucks County Correctional Facility inmate account belonging to the father of Sharkey’s child.

Sharkey was also given concurrent sentences in five other cases Thursday.

She pleaded guilty to retail theft, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia for an October 2017 arrest at a Walmart in Tullytown; harassment for a September 2020 child custody case; driving under the influence for a Bensalem Township arrest in May 2020; retail theft and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia for a May 2020 arrest at a CVS in Bristol Township; and retail theft for June 2020 arrest at a Wawa in Bristol Township.

Theses cases were prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber.

Media Contact: Manuel Gamiz Jr., 215.348.6298, mgamiz@buckscounty.org