Five Scheme to Defraud Elderly FL Woman

An 81-year-old Dania Beach woman with a history of Alzheimer's disease was exploited by five people in a scheme to repeatedly make her pay for bogus handiwork, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.
Arrested in connection with Joann Sobczak's alleged exploitation were Zachary Brinegar, 27; Jason Touchton, 33; James Burkholder, 27; Gina Guilder, 27; and William Tinnell, 65, the agency said.

Each was charged with at least one count of exploitation of the elderly. Additionally, Touchton was charged with elderly neglect without great harm. They each admitted to investigators they played a role in the scheme, the agency said.

According to a Broward sheriff's report, Brinegar confessed to helping out his co-defendants in exploiting Sobczak on Sunday, when the woman wrote them a $500 check.

Brinegar could not tell deputies what the check was for, but said that he got $50 for driving his accomplices to Sobczak's home, the agency said.

On Tuesday, he told investigators that they returned to the woman's home to fraudulently obtain another check. They told Sobczak that the $500 check she had previously given them could not be cashed even though it was.

Touchton, too, confessed to exploiting the woman and said that he and his accomplices had promised to complete handiwork for Sobczak that never was done. He received $50 for helping defraud the woman on each of two separate occasions, the report said.

Burkholder also admitted to defrauding the Alzheimer's-stricken woman multiple times and to making her believe that he would fix things around her home. He said he took a payment of $800 on Saturday for work he never did on an air-conditioning unit, the report said.

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Group Accused of Making Dania Beach Woman, 81, Pay for Bogus Handiwork