Thursday, March 12, 2009

Man Swindled Elderly Woman

A man is facing charges after police say he swindled an elderly woman out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Investigators say James Riley withdrew thousands of dollars each month from 64-year-old Maggie Garfield's account for more than a year. Police say Garfield is confined to a wheelchair, cannot communicate well, and has a medical history showing she's incapable of giving consent.

Authorities say Riley was first charged with financially exploiting Garfield in April 2008. Riley was arrested for taking $164,511 from the woman's account. That case is still pending before the courts.

In August 2008 the courts issued an emergency order of guardianship for Garfield. A few months thereafter, the guardian filed a police report against Riley, claiming he had used power of attorney to withdraw $10,911 from Garfield's account from January to October in 2008.

Full Article and Source:
Man Swindles Elderly Woman Out of Loads of Cash

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

While the guardian did his/her job in pursuing Riley, I imagine everyone was then satisfied and didn't give a second thought to what the guardian and guardian's lawyer billed Maggie Garfield.

Anonymous said...

The guardian is probably miffed that is money he can't abuse because it is gone.

Anonymous said...

The guardian will get every last cent of Maggie Garfield's assets.

That is the name of the guardianship BINGO game - he who gets there first - WINS!

In the end, Ms. Garfields will not have any standing or control over her own life savings.

Best way to beat this game is to sell all you own, spend or give away all of your assets now.

In fact, if you are impoverished no one and I do mean no one will be fighting to be your guardian and that is a 100% guarantee!

Anonymous said...

The sad thing here is she gets ripped off badly and now the guardian will do the same. The woman will be just as vulnerable the next time, but it won't matter because the guardian ripped her off "in her best interest".

Anonymous said...

I have seen the BINGO game in action.. my uncle took guardianship of my grandmother's concerns when she developed Alzheimer's disease. He saw that all her money was spent on such things as rent in houses that were unnecessary and selling off her estate holdings, heirlooms that were previously promised to family members by her, etc. Now she has nothing and she is in the nursing home, where he has rights to all decisions on her behalf, excluding with all rudeness and vengeance, her other two children and myself. We are all disgusted and know that she would be as well. There seems to be nothing we can do. It's terrible. Fight while you have the chance.. and regarding the comment that no one would fight for your guardianship, that is totally inaccurate. This is my grandmother and if I had the right I would have control of her, not for her money, but solely for her well-being. Too bad for you that you don't believe anyone in the world would want to care for someone just because they care.