ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Nursing Home Business Manager Pleads Guilty To Theft
Wrote Checks Off Resident Account
False Entries On Nursing Home Books
Seniors residing in assisted care or skilled nursing facilities face the same risk of financial elder abuse by dishonest staff members as seniors living at home do from dishonest in-home caregivers. Theft of cash and jewelry from a senior’s home by a dishonest caregiver or a nursing home room from a dishonest staff member are clear examples. But other forms of financial abuse are present even in the nursing home setting too and may be harder – and take longer – to detect. For example, unscrupulous administrators, staff and bookkeepers may use access to confidential information (Social Security numbers or bank account numbers) to steal from unwary residents or use trust money on deposit with the home to make purchases for themselves. All such financial elder abuse is against the law and grounds for civil liability. See Penal Code § 368 (crime of financial elder abuse) and Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 15610.30 (definition of financial elder abuse). Evans Law Firm. Inc. represents victims and their families suffering any form of financial elder abuse. We pursue all persons responsible, including the owners, administrators and staff directly responsible or as supervisors with a duty to protect residents from any kind of abuse. Call us today at (415)441-8669 if any senior loved one has suffered any kind of financial elder abuse in Orange County, Los Angeles or elsewhere in California.
Sentencing Of Nursing Home Bookkeeper For Financial Elder Abuse[1]
A nursing home bookkeeper was sentenced to a year in jail recently after pleading guilty to stealing from elderly residents at the nursing home where she served as business manager. A police investigation revealed that over a two-year period the business manager ran an alleged scheme in which she stole more than $20,000 from one 88-year-old resident of the home by writing checks to herself from the resident’s account. In addition, authorities accused the defendant of transferring reimbursements from the nursing home, which were owed to a number of residents, into an account from which she was stealing to “cover up” the original theft.
Prosecutors also alleged that the bookkeeper made regular false entries into the accounting system and the corporate books to misappropriate credits of other residents into the account she was stealing from. Authorities were initially alerted to the defendant’s suspicious activities when a corporation acquired the nursing home and discovered the accounting discrepancies when the books were reviewed by the new owners.
How To Protect Nursing Home Resident From Financial Elder Abuse
In the reported case, the fraud was discovered only because a new business reviewed the books of the nursing home where the defendant worked. The victims themselves, and their families, had not detected the suspicious activities any earlier. The fraud could perhaps have been detected sooner had families been monitoring the finances of loved ones residing in the facility. Regular monitoring of an older loved one’s bank accounts, IRAs, cash, valuables, and credit card statements is the front line for protecting the senior from financial abuse. Never ever allow the senior to give a caregiver or a nursing home administrator a Power of Attorney or authorize them to sign checks. Make sure checks, important papers, account numbers and Social Security numbers are not accessible to those persons. Run a check through the California Department of Health to see if any citations have ever issued to the home for any manner of abuse. Redirect the senior’s mail to your own address so nursing home staff or strangers do not have access to the resident’s mail. Keep an eye on where their Social Security and pension money is directly deposited; sometimes abusers try to re-route those deposits to their own accounts.
Contact Us
If you suspect any financial elder abuse of an older loved one in Orange County, Los Angeles or elsewhere in California call Ingrid M. Evans and the other financial elder abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. today. Ingrid and our other attorneys can be reached at (415) 441-8669, or email us at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. We handle all types of elder abuse cases throughout California.
[1] Evans Law Firm, Inc. was not involved in the reported case in any way..
