California Caretaker Charged With Draining Equity From 84-Year Old Woman's Home, Leaving Her Underwater & Facing Foreclosure

In Huntington Beach, California, the Los Angeles Times reports:

• The live-in caretaker of an 84-year-old Huntington Beach woman allegedly took out fraudulent loans in her name, bilking the older woman out of about $200,000 and putting the woman's home in danger of foreclosure, authorities said Tuesday. Cindi Dee Powell, 54, has been charged with financial elder abuse, grand theft, identity theft, vehicle theft, fraud and forgery. She remains in custody.

• According to police, Powell moved in with Constance Wakefield about two years ago to help the woman, who uses a wheelchair, around the house and drive her to appointments. Wakefield hired Powell through a classified ad and was not aware that Powell was on probation in another elder abuse case.

For more, see Live-in caretaker charged with financial elder abuse, fraud and forgery (Police say Cindi Dee Powell bilked an 84-year-old Huntington Beach woman out of about $200,000 and put the woman's house at risk of foreclosure).

Go here, Go here, Go here, Go here, Go here, and Go here for other posts related to deed or refinancing scams by forgery, swindle, power of attorney abuse, etc.

Go here, here, here, here, here, and here for other posts on elder financial abuse. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha DeedGammaTheft

Man Charged With Abusing POA, Looting $122K From Elderly Mom's Bank Accounts; 82-Year Old Woman Left With Big Nursing Bill & No Funds To Pay For Care

In Daytona Beach, Florida, the Daytona Beach News Journal reports:

• A man who had power of attorney over his mother's affairs faces a felony exploitation charge after police said he emptied her bank accounts of $122,722. William Frank Kunselman Jr., 62, was arrested [...] on a charge of exploitation of the elderly. Daytona Beach detectives said Kunselman's 82-year-old mother, whose name was not provided, has lived at the Good Samaritan nursing home since 2006. She was relying on an income of $39,600 from her Social Security and investments.

• Police said she had no idea her bills were not being paid at the nursing home, and she now owes $69,000. Kunselman, who wrote dozens of checks to himself from his mother's account, told detectives he has no money to pay for his mother's care.

Source: Man accused of emptying mother's accounts. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Saintfield Couple Cops Forgery Plea; Accused Of Ripping Off 94-Year Old, Blind Mother Of Her Half Of Residence; Civil Suit Expected To Undo Deed Theft

In Saintfield, Northern Ireland, the Belfast Telegraph reports:

• A man has pleaded guilty to a £100,000 fraud in which he and his wife left his blind 94-year-old mother without her home. Just moments after a jury was sworn in to hear the case George Ignatius Martin and his wife Mary Martin changed their plea and admitted forging land registry documents to transfer the elderly pensioner’s home into their name.(1)

***

• The fraud relates to a house at Downpatrick Street in Saintfield which the victim, Mrs Annie Martin, owned with her son George Ignatius Martin. [...] Mrs Annie Martin currently resides in a Belfast nursing home and civil proceedings are expected to be launched to have her share of the property signed back to her.

For more, see Son admits defrauding his mother of her home.

For additional Belfast Telegraph reports on this case, see:

• Family’s shame over son’s bid to swindle blind pensioner,
• Lawyer accused of cheating woman (94) out of her home.

Go here, go here, go here, go here, and go here for other posts related to deed or refinancing scams by forgery, swindle, etc.

(1) Reportedly, the Martins entered pleas to four charges of forgery and using false land registry documents with intent. Two charges of obtaining property by deception were not prosecuted, according to the story. KappaDeedTheft FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

92-Year Old Victim Of Alleged C. Florida House Swindle Gives Emotional Testimony In Criminal Trial; Says She Unwittingly Signed Deed To Her Home

In New Port Richey, Florida, The Tampa Tribune reports:

• Time has taken away some of Eloise Mudway's physical and mental abilities. She has difficulty recalling names, dates and times; struggles to hear and gets around only with the help of a wheelchair. Fortunately, she has retained a healthy sense of humor. Eloise Mudway, 92, needed it [Thursday] as she spent more than three hours on the witness stand answering a barrage of questions from Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis and defense attorneys Dean Livermore and Mark Goettel. "God help me," she said during one break in her testimony. Livermore and Goettel represent Cynthia and Joseph Clancy, a local couple prosecutors contend swindled Mudway out of her $370,000 house and other assets between 2001 and 2005.(1)

***

• Mudway answered with an emphatic "no" when asked if Cynthia Clancy ever explained to her that she was signing a quit-claim deed to save the house from default. "I never heard tell of a quit-claim deed," Mudway testified. "She just brought the paper out, shoved it in front of me and said, 'Sign this. I'm getting mad.'" The Clancys continue to live in the house while Mudway lives with another local couple.

For more, see Elderly woman testifies in Pasco grand theft case.

-------------------

See also, the St. Petersburg Times: Elderly victim gives emotional testimony in Pasco County grand theft trial:

• The prosecutor handed Eloise Mudway the quit claim deed with her signature transferring her home to someone else. Sitting in her wheelchair, Mudway looked at the paper and fought back the tears. "Do you remember Cyndy Clancy taking you to Wachovia Bank?" asked Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis. "A piece of paper was put in front of me," replied the 92-year-old woman, whose voice cracked as she blotted her eyes with tissue, "and old dumb me signed it and didn't have a house anymore." [...] After her testimony, Mudway was wheeled out of the courtroom by a victim's advocate.

(1) The Clancys are each charged with one count of grand theft from a person over 65 and both face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha DeedContraTheft

Daughter, Son-In-Law Convicted Of Scamming Alzheimer's-Afflicted Widowed Mom Into Borrowing $350K Against Home & Using It Towards Luxury Home Purchase

In Clackamas County, Oregon, The Oregonian reports:

• Ask Clara Philpot how she's doing, and she'll answer with a beaming smile and a hearty "Fantastic." Ask the 87-year-old who is president or the name of the dog napping in her lap and she can't say. Philpot, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2002, also can't explain how or why she borrowed almost $1 million to finance a luxury home in Sherwood and immediately deeded half to Gayla and Jeff Ross, a daughter and son-in-law who took care of her.(1) After looking at the evidence, however, a Clackamas County jury took less than two hours to find Gayla Ross guilty of aggravated theft and first-degree criminal mistreatment.

• Ross now faces prison. She will be sentenced Sept. 8 along with her husband, Jeff Ross, a former Washington County sheriff's deputy who was convicted of first-degree criminal mistreatment. Philpot's net worth now is zero -- she gets by on Social Security -- and she could soon be homeless. The debt on the Molalla house she and her husband bought 43 years ago, and once owned free and clear, now exceeds the property's value, and she hasn't made a mortgage payment for two years.

For more, see Stealing from mom and dad in Oregon (if link expires, try here).

For story update, see King City woman gets prison time for bilking elderly mother (A King City woman convicted of taking her elderly mother's money was sentenced Tuesday in Clackamas County Circuit Court to 16 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $441,000 in restitution) (if link expires, try here).

(1) Under Gayla Ross' direction, Clara Philpot took out a $352,000 mortgage on her Molalla home. Ross used that money as a down payment on a home in Sherwood and obtained a $609,000 mortgage in Philpot's name, the story states. The day after the deal closed, Philpot reportedly transferred a 50 percent interest to the Rosses. Legally, Philpot had sole responsibility for mortgage payments that exceeded $5,600 a month -- more than four times her monthly income. Within a week, one of Philpot's relatives anonymously notified state welfare workers about the deals, and the Sherwood house was lost to foreclosure. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Aussie Legal Non-Profit Helps Vulnerable Senior Beat Bank In Foreclosure; Son's Manipulation Resulted In Improper Mortgaging Of Family Home For $200K

In Sydney, New South Wales, The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

• AN INTELLECTUALLY disabled pensioner has won a court battle to stave off foreclosure in a case said to have broad implications for consumers who offer their home as security for a business loan. The lawsuit concerns Wollongong man Patrick Ford, whose son - identified as "Scott" - manipulated him to put a $200,000 mortgage on the family home to buy a cleaning business. When the business collapsed and the son absconded, the lender pursued Mr Ford, who cannot read or write. The NSW Court of Appeal agreed this month that Mr Ford did not have to repay the loan, other than about $25,000.

• "[The decision] reinforces that lenders can't get around consumer protection laws by the use of business-purpose declarations and that lenders have obligations to inquire into the circumstances of people to whom they're lending," said Alan Kirkland, the chief executive of Legal Aid NSW, which represented Mr Ford.

***

• Katherine Lane, the principal solicitor at the Consumer Credit Legal Centre, said the various institutions were "recklessly indifferent" to Mr Ford's ability to repay the loan. "They're all interested in their own commission."

• Mr Ford's sister, Ann Watkinson, said the ordeal had been exhausting. "We had sheriffs coming all the time," she said, recounting one visit at 4am. "We'd get a couple of hours sleep, then be awake, crying." [...] Despite the victory, she said the family would have to sell Mr Ford's home to pay expenses. The family hopes there will be enough money to move Mr Ford, 64, to a retirement village.

For the story, see Pensioner fends off lenders in court win.

For the appellate court ruling, which reversed an unfavorable lower court decision, see Patrick John Ford by his Tutor Beatrice Ann Watkinson v Perpetual Trustees Victoria Limited [2009] NSWCA 186 (8 July 2009).

For more on real estate conveyances that are void if the grantor's signature is forged or if the grantor is unaware of the nature of what he or she is signing, see Unwinding An Abusive Or Fraudulent Real Estate Transaction? Determining If The Deed Is Void, Or Merely Voidable.

(1) According to the story, an unusual aspect of the case is the number of financial institutions - a mortgage broker, a loan wholesaler, a mortgage aggregator, an insurer and a trustee - that did not investigate whether the illiterate pensioner understood what he was signing or if he was capable of running a business. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha DeedContraTheft

"Helpful" Neighbor Gets 57 Months For Ripping Off Cancer Patient; Stopping Automatic Bank Debit For House Payments Leads To Near Foreclosure

In Fort Worth, Texas, the Star Telegram reports:

• Debilitated by breast cancer, Jody Short of Mansfield was grateful two years ago when a neighbor offered to help care for her after she came home from the hospital. Sixteen months later, Short learned that the neighbor, Janice Gast, whom she considered a friend, had begun using her identity, her credit cards and her bank accounts shortly after she took over Short’s care.

• Gast, 42, was sentenced to prison [last week] after pleading guilty to forging Short’s name on documents and stealing more than $67,000 from her over about a year. State District Judge Sharen Wilson sentenced Gast to concurrent four-year prison terms on charges of felony theft and fraudulent use of identification, and to nine months in state jail on a forgery charge.

***

• [Prosecutor Tiffany] Burks said the worst thing Gast did was stopping the automatic bank debit for Short’s monthly mortgage payments. "Her lender was in the process of filing a foreclosure, so she almost lost her home," Burks said.

For the story, see Neighbor who stole from cancer patient gets 4 years, 9 months in prison. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Ohio Man Cops Plea For Allegedly Ripping Off Elderly Father; Used POA To Pocket $130K, Transfer Home Title Into His Name

In Hamilton County, Ohio, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports:

• [Robert] Lodge was caring for his 89-year-old father and regularly taking him to the bank. Bank officials became worried when his father, Harry Lodge, blurted out to a bank teller after a withdrawal of several hundred dollars that he was being held hostage by his son.

• Bank officials contacted police who arrested Robert Lodge. The son had received his father’s power of attorney – allowing him to make legal, financial and other decisions for his father – in May 2005. By the time the power of attorney was revoked in November 2007, Lodge had spent about $130,000 of his father’s money and transferred title of his father’s house into his name.

***

• The father’s $125,000 house, though, has been transferred back into his name and other relatives are in charge of his finances. The house will be sold to pay off the father’s debts as a result of his son stealing his money.

***

• Last month, Hamilton County prosecutors had to drop a similar case against Gwendolyn Hall. Hall persuaded her 90-year-old aunt to give her power of attorney that Hall used to steal $500,000 from her aunt. Hall, 62, of Cheviot, pleaded guilty but died before she could be sentenced.

For more, see Man avoids jail after stealing $130K from Dad.

Go here, go here, and go here for other posts related to deed theft by forgery, swindle, etc.

Go here, here, here, here, here, and here for other posts on elder financial abuse. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha deed theft xenon

California Man Charged With Misappropriating Proceeds From Reverse Mortgage Secured By Elderly Woman's Home

From the Office of the San Francisco, California District Attorney:

• San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris announced today that John McTaggart, age 45, [...] was arraigned on charges of residential burglary, grand theft and grand theft from an elder for allegedly stealing $140,000 from an 86-year-old San Francisco woman as part of an annuity scam.

***

• According to court documents, in February 2008 defendant McTaggart, a former broker, convinced his elderly victim to sign over $140,000 in monies received through a legitimate reverse mortgage he had helped the victim secure. Once the victim received the money from the reverse mortgage, the defendant allegedly convinced her to dedicate a portion of the funds to two separate annuity accounts. Instead of depositing the victim’s money into actual annuity accounts, he deposited the money into his personal account. The defendant then allegedly attempted to mask this fraud, by sending monthly checks to the victim, essentially paying her "dividends" from the money he had stolen directly from her. Defendant McTaggart then fled to Tennessee, where he resided until he was arrested on the DA arrest warrant that was issued on November 24, 2008.

For more, see DA Extradites Man to Face Charges of Elder Abuse and Fraud in Annuity Scam (Prosecution is Part of a DA-led Crackdown on Financial Predators).

Go here, Go here, Go here, Go here, Go here, and Go here for other posts related to deed or refinancing scams by forgery, swindle, power of attorney abuse, etc.

Go here, here, here, here, here, and here for other posts on elder financial abuse. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha DeedGammaTheft

Senior "$CAMS" Detection Project Focuses On Identifying Nursing Home Residents With Past Due Accounts In Effort To Stamp Out Elder Financial Abuse

From the Office of the Michigan Attorney General:

• Attorney General Mike Cox [...] announced criminal charges against six individuals accused of financially exploiting senior citizens. The charges are a result of Project $CAMS (Stop Crimes Against Michigan Seniors), an initiative to protect nursing home residents from scams, misappropriated resources and embezzlement. Operated by the Attorney General's office, along with the Office of Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, Project $CAMS uncovers potential financial exploitation by identifying nursing home residents with past due accounts. Since the project was announced in May of 2008, 43 criminal cases have been filed.

***

• [N]ursing home residents are the most vulnerable and the least likely to be able to detect or report it. It is estimated that only one in 100 instances of victimization is typically reported.

• Servicing 39 counties when launched in 2008, Project $CAMS currently protects seniors in over 250 nursing homes across 75 counties. The nursing home facilities participate by identifying residents who are behind in their payments and providing the Attorney General's office with relevant documentation. Nursing home arrearages as a result of thefts have been as high as $75,000. In the majority of the cases, the perpetrator was a relative.

For the entire Michigan AG press release, see Cox Charges Six for Scamming Seniors. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Minnesota Woman Charged With Pocketing $1.1M+ In Real Estate Sale Proceeds Belonging To Her 89-Year Old Dementia-Suffering Mom, Leaving Her Destitute

From the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General:

• The Office of Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson [...] filed a criminal complaint in Rice County District Court charging a Dakota County woman, Connie Ruth Rott, with nine felony counts of theft by swindle and five felony counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult for diverting over $1.1 million held in trust for the benefit of Rott’s elderly mother, D.S. Because of Rott’s depletion of D.S.’s assets, the State’s taxpayer-funded Medical Assistance program is now paying for the 89-year-old D.S.’s nursing home and medical bills, at a monthly cost of $4,200.

• “The sad thing about this case is that, unlike many senior citizens, the 89-year-old victim started out with plenty of money to pay for her nursing home and medical care. Because of the daughter’s exploitive self-dealing, the mother’s assets have been substantially depleted, and the taxpayer-financed Medical Assistance program is now paying for her care,” said Attorney General Lori Swanson.

• In 2000, D.S. placed real estate she owned in Northfield, Minnesota that she originally farmed with her late husband into a revocable trust to be used for her care, comfort, support, and maintenance, naming her daughter Rott as Trustee. D.S. also signed a durable power of attorney that year naming Rott as her attorney-in-fact, and in 2003, Rott was named D.S.’s legal guardian. In 2004, D.S. was admitted to the dementia unit of the Three Links Care Center, a Northfield nursing home. D.S. requires total assistance with activities of daily living. Rott agreed to make timely payments to Three Links using D.S.’s income and assets.

• The complaint alleges that, between 2004 and 2007, Rott sold three pieces of the real estate D.S. placed into trust, for a net amount of over $1.3 million, and then diverted over $1.1 million in proceeds from the sale of the real estate to her own benefit or for the benefit of persons other than D.S.

For the entire press release, see Attorney General Charges Woman With Felony Theft and Financial Exploitation for Depleting $1.1 Million In Assets Held In Trust For Elderly Mother (Taxpayer-Funded Medical Assistance Is Now Paying for 89 Year Old’s Nursing Home Care).

Go here, here, here, here, here, and here for other posts on elder financial abuse. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Jury Finds Central Florida Couple Guilty Of Grand Theft For Tricking Elderly Widow Into Signing Away Title To Her Home

In New Port Richey, Florida, the St. Petersburg Times reports:

• To Cynthia and Joseph Clancy, it wasn't enough to spend Eloise Mudway's savings, take her home and isolate the elderly widow from her friends. Mudway didn't die fast enough for the couple, Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis told jurors on Monday. He said Cynthia Clancy told Mudway's new caretakers: "If she gets ill, don't call EMS. Let her die."

• After hearing a week's worth of testimony and deliberating an hour and a half, a jury convicted the Clancys on Monday afternoon of grand theft of a person aged 65 or older. During a six-day trial that included emotional testimony from Mudway, now 92, the prosecution said the Clancys tricked Mudway into signing over the deed to her Hilltop Drive home. The couple also emptied Mudway's bank account, then sent her to live with friend Jeff Kores and his wife after the elderly widow had a heart attack in 2004.

For more, see Pasco County couple convicted of stealing from elderly woman.

See also The Tampa Tribune: Pasco couple face up to 30 years for bilking elderly woman. DeedContraTheft FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Oregon Regulators To Crack Down On Self-Titled "Specialists" & "Advisers" Having Little Or No Professional Training

In Portland, Oregon, The Oregonian reports:

• State regulators are trying to clamp down on the use of misleading financial services and insurance credentials that they say leave seniors vulnerable to abuse and fraud. The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services is proposing new rules that would ban the use of "specialist," "adviser" or similar titles by salespeople who lack legitimate professional training. Salespeople could face fines as much as $20,000 for using designations that aren't backed by organizations with stringent requirements.

***

• "People call themselves all kinds of things they really aren't," said Kevin Anselm, head of enforcement at the department's Division of Finance and Corporate Securities. "It's been more of a problem on the insurance side than the securities side." Among the troubling designations: special senior adviser, real estate specialist and foreclosure specialist.

For more, see Oregon regulators take aim at financial services designations (if link expires, try here). FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Elderly Couple Accuse Grandson Of Pocketing Mortgage Proceeds On Family Home After Duping Them Into Unwittingly Signing Over Title; Now Face F'closure

In St. Paul, Minnesota, Fox News TV Channel 9 reports:

• [Stella] Hernandez is not embarrassed to admit she’s 81 years old. Her husband Joseph is 91. He is a decorated WWII veteran, and she was a real life “Rosie the Riveter” working on B-24 bombers at St. Paul’s Holman field. For the past 40 years they’ve lived on Dayton Avenue in the shadows of the St. Paul Cathedral. But now a family dispute means they may face foreclosure.

• Six years ago, the Hernandez’s claim they were tricked into signing a qui[t] claim deed on the house giving ownership to their grandson. Afterwards they claim he allegedly took out loans on the home’s equity and didn’t repay them. What he did with the money they don’t know because they haven’t been able to talk to him. “I don’t know,” said Mrs. Hernandez. "I don’t know anything about his whereabouts or anything.”

***

• Law students from the University of St. Thomas are working on their case. Law School spokesman Nicholas Halbur said he could not immediately comment on the matter.

For the story, see Elderly Couple Fighting Foreclosure in St. Paul. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha DeedContraTheft

C. Florida Man Accused Of Using POA To Secure $150K Credit Line On Alzheimers-Afflicted Mom's Home; Pocketed Cash, Left Her In Foreclosure, Say Cops

In Dade City, Florida, the St. Petersburg Times reports:

• Thomas Davis secured a $150,000 home equity line of credit on his elderly mother's home last year, authorities said. Within seven months, he had spent it all — on drugs, a hydroponic garden for growing marijuana, even on a $40,000 party that Davis, 47, threw for himself, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said. By March, the bank began foreclosure proceedings on the home of the woman, who has Alzheimer's. And Davis, who had power of attorney as his mother's live-in caretaker, told family members he had dug a financial hole from which he couldn't escape, the Sheriff's Office said.

• A judge transferred guardianship of the 87-year-old mother from Davis to his sister. The sister began making mortgage payments to save the Dade City home from foreclosure. And Davis was arrested this week on a charge of exploitation of the elderly.

For more, see Pasco man spent mother's $150,000 line of credit on drugs, party, deputies say.

Go here, here, here, here, here, and here for other posts on elder financial abuse. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Scammer Convicted Of Elder Expoitation Now Accused Of Swiping Mom's Home Equity, Resulting In Foreclosure; Other Victims Come Forward

In Great Falls, Montana, the Great Falls Tribune reports:

• When Tina Palagi was sentenced in court on charges of elder exploitation in December, she got a suspended sentence and a strong warning to stay out of trouble.(1) Now the Great Falls woman is accused of stealing from her own mother while her mother was ill, causing the elderly woman to lose her home to foreclosure just months before it should have been paid off.(2)

***

• According to charging documents, [a Great Falls Police] detective learned Palagi had been trusted to manage her mother's finances while her mother was seriously ill. The older woman bought her house in 1973 and should have made the last payment in 2003. Instead, she learned her home was in foreclosure when sheriff's deputies told her she was being evicted and had 30 minutes to vacate the house, according to court documents.

• The charges say Palagi took out a loan against the house in 2000 and failed to pay back the loan, causing the house to go into foreclosure. Palagi had been authorized to govern her mother's affairs, but her mother did not know about the loan, according to the charges. Palagi also is accused of stealing her mother's retirement benefits while her mother was sick.

For more, see Woman convicted of elder exploitation now charged with bilking mom.

For story update (April 3, 2009), see Parole violations land woman in state prison:

• A woman convicted of at least two financial scams and accused of many more will spend at least 10 years in Montana Women's Prison. [...] Judge Dirk Sandefur handed down the prison sentence Thursday after determining Palagi had violated the conditions of two previous suspended sentences.

Go here, here, here, here, here, and here for other posts on elder financial abuse.

(1) According to the story, Palagi was given an eight-year suspended sentence in December for borrowing $54,000 from a 78-year-old family friend and failing to repay the money. District Judge Dirk Sandefur said he only let Palagi stay out of prison so she could pay the woman back. "I want you to understand very, very clearly that this is the end of the line for you," Sandefur said at the time. Palagi also reportedly has a previous conviction for a scam involving phony money orders.

(2) Palagi, 42, made her initial appearance Monday in Cascade County District Court on the newest charge of elder exploitation. That charge comes on the heels of a host of other new charges filed last week, accusing Palagi of other counts of elder exploitation and felony theft, according to the story. DeedGammaTheft FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Boulder Woman Suspected Of Improper Use Of POA To Mortgage Home, Swipe Refinance Proceeds From 92 Year Old Lady

In Boulder, Colorado, the Boulder Daily Camera reports:

• A 60-year-old Boulder woman has been arrested on suspicion stealing from an 92-year-old lady by refinancing the elderly woman's home three times without permission and taking the payouts, according to the Longmont Police Department. Eileen Marie Banman turned herself in to Longmont police Tuesday and was arrested on a warrant for theft over $20,000 and crimes against at-risk adults. According to Longmont police, the elderly woman's home already was paid off when Banman obtained power of attorney to "assist" the alleged victim by writing out checks for her.

Cops say the home is now in foreclosure.

For more, see Boulder woman suspected of stealing from 92-year-old.

See also:

• Woman accused of running up $200K in debt against 92-year-old’s home,
• Arrestee accused of refinancing elderly woman's house 3 times without permission.

Go here, here, here, here, here, and here for other posts on elder financial abuse.

Go here, go here, go here, and go here for other posts related to deed or refinancing scams by forgery, swindle, etc. DeedTheftAlpha FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Connecticut Woman Charged With Ripping Off Her 89-Year Old Mother Of Home, Cash

In Ansonia, Connecticut, WTNH-TV Channel 8 reports:

• An Ansonia woman was arrested [last week] for allegedly violating the court-ordered fiduciary duties for her 89-year-old mother. Donna D. Kingston, 61, allegedly withdrew more than $72,000 by closing a CD account and withdrawing funds from her mother's bank account in May and June 2007. Less than $4,500 was left in the bank account, the warrant states.

• In May 2008, Ms. Kingston quit-claimed full ownership of her mother's Ansonia home to herself. Although the deed allowed the mother life use of the property, she has repeatedly demanded the return of her home and assets without result. Kingston was charged with three counts of larceny.

Source: Woman accused of stealing from mother. DeedContraTheft FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Wisconsin Man Charged With Stealing From Dementia-Stricken Homeowner; Victim's House Ultimately Lost In Foreclosure

In Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, WQOW-TV Channel 18 reports:

• A Chippewa Falls man is charged with stealing thousands of dollars from a woman who was in the early stages of Dementia. Todd Evenson is charged with theft. Investigators say he made a deal with a woman in 2004 that he would do chores in exchange for a room. Over three years, investigators say Evenson used the woman's debt consolidation loan to buy power tools, a motorcycle, and even pay some of his child support payments. Nearly $17,000 was taken and the woman's home was eventually foreclosed on. The criminal complaint says Evenson has a history of forgery, credit card fraud and identity theft. He'll be in court in July.

Source: Man Charged With Stealing From Woman With Dementia. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha

Court-Appointed Conservator Convicted Of Milking Elderly Man Of Assets, Leaving Him Facing Foreclosure

In Lakeport, California, Lake County News reports:

• Following a five-week trial a local woman has been convicted of felony financial elder abuse and neglect. On Wednesday, a jury convicted Glenhaven resident Shauna Michelle Brewster, 53, of one count of felony financial elder abuse and one felony count of elder abuse/neglect, according to Senior District Attorney Rachel Abelson [...].

***

• The crimes allegedly were committed over a year-and-a-half-long period against 75-year-old Glenhaven resident Lawrence Russell, for whom Brewster became private conservator in early 2003, said Abelson.

***

• The financial abuse came to light when Russell's medical bills, mortgage and other bills went unpaid, said Abelson. Russell's home had gone into foreclosure after payments were not made for seven months, and almost no money was left in Russell's checking account. Brewster, as Russell's conservator, had the authority and responsibility to control his finances for his benefit, said Abelson.

For more, see Jury convicts woman of financial elder abuse, neglect.

Go here, here, here, here, here, and here for other posts on elder financial abuse. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha