A woman charged with kidnapping a 97-year-old resident from a Melbourne nursing home allegedly believes the woman is her mother, whose death and funeral several years ago was faked as part of a conspiracy.

Irene Moschones, 51, appeared before Melbourne magistrates court on Sunday charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment after 97-year-old Dimitra Pavlopoulou was taken from her Clarinda nursing home on Saturday.

Pavlopoulou was wheeled out of her room at Clarinda Manor about 12pm on Saturday and put in a car, with her wheelchair left behind.

Police found the 97-year-old at a Cheltenham home at about 9.30pm on Saturday after Moschones allegedly took the older woman there.

An associate of Moschones rang police after he saw Pavlopoulou lying on a mattress in the living room, police prosecutor Sergeant Daryl Eales said.

It’s alleged the 51-year-old believes Pavlopoulou is her mother, even though investigators have established Moschone’s mother died in 2013.

Eales said Moschones believes “there was a conspiracy against her committed by a group of people to get her inheritance from her mother”.

Moschones has previously requested her mother’s body be exhumed so DNA testing can disprove her mother’s death and funeral.

Moschones has also been visiting nursing homes in a bid to try to find her “real” mother, police said.

“She had been to many nursing homes on many other occasions,” Eales said. “She [Moschones] is in no way related to the victim, and she is not known to anyone in her [the victim’s] family.”

Magistrate Ross Betts denied Moschones bail after police said they were concerned about her mental state.

“She requires psychiatric assessment due to her delusional thoughts towards the victim and her thought processes of the victim being her mother,” Eales said.

Police also said they were worried Moschones would again try to take Pavlopoulou from the nursing home and put her life at risk a second time, as she suffers from several conditions that require medical care.

Moschones has been remanded into custody and will return to court on Wednesday.