Woman Sentenced For Elder Theft Scheme Of Ill Patient, Stole An Estimated $70K
FREDERICK COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) -- A West Virginia woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a theft scheme between $10,000 and $100,000 and credit card theft between $1,500 and $25,000.
Jennifer High, 36, of Berkley Springs, West Virginia, pled guilty to these charges and was sentenced on May 17.
High worked for the victim's family for about 14 years as a caregiver for the victim's disabled daughter.
When the victim became ill in 2013, High volunteered to assist the victim by shopping for her, getting money from the ATM and paying her bills online.
In December 2016, the victim -- who was an elderly victim -- began to tell her daughters that she did not have any money and received several overdraft notices from her bank.
When the victim's family looked into the incident, they noticed over $22,000 in theft from the bank account.
The theft involved thousands of dollars in unauthorized ATM withdraws, payment of High's bills and the purchase of and payment for used cars.
After reporting the incident to the Brunswick Police Department, an investigation included an interview of High where she admitted to her crime and acknowledged that it had occurred over a much longer
period of time.
She estimated the value of the theft to be around $70,000.
A review of bank records for that period of time confirmed that the Defendant had been fraudulently utilizing the victim's funds for over four years and that the amount of the theft totaled over $90,000.
Upon release, the High will be on five years of supervised probation and will have to pay restitution exceeding $90,000 to the victim.