N.J. senior care employee pleads guilty to stealing from elderly clients

TRENTON — An employee at a senior care company in Atlantic County pleaded guilty to her role in an alleged scheme to bilk millions of dollars from elderly clients, the state Attorney General's Office announced Monday.

Susan Hamlett, 57, of Egg Harbor Township, who worked as an aide at the company, A Better Choice, is the fifth and final defendant to plead guilty in the investigation, the office said.

Hamlett pleaded guilty on a charge of second-degree conspiracy on the eve of her trial, admitting that she conspired with her co-defendants to steal more than $100,000 from one client, an elderly woman, the office said.

She faces three to five years in state prison, according to the office. Sentencing is Oct. 21.

Hamlett was indicted in March 2015 with three other people:

• Jan Van Holt, 60, of Linwood, the owner of the company, which offered in-home care and legal financial planning for senior citizens.
• Sondra Steen, 61, of Linwood, Van Holt's sister, who helped run the company.
• William Price, 58, of Linwood, a former county social worker who conspired with the others to steal from an elderly couple.

Another defendant, Barbara Lieberman, 64, of Northfield, a lawyer, pleaded guilty before the indictments.

All of the defendants pleaded guilty in the case, each on different charges.

In all, Van Holt and Steen conspired with Lieberman to steal more than $2.7 million from 12 elderly clients from 2003 to 2012, the Attorney General's Office said.

Steen and Lieberman were each sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Price got five years. Van Holt faces a 12-year sentence.

"By stealing the life savings of elderly clients who had no family to look out for them, these defendants placed themselves among the lowest of con artists," said Attorney General Christopher Porrino said in a statement. "The victims are gone, but we've persisted in our quest for justice for them, securing prison terms for all of the perpetrators."

Ellie Honig, the director of the criminal justice division of the attorney general' office, called the scheme "one of the most egregious cases of elder fraud that we have prosecuted in recent years."

The defendants targeted elderly clients with "substantial assets" but no immediate family, offering to do things such as household chores, errands and budgeting, according to the Attorney General's Office.

Eventually, the defendants took control of the victims' finances by forging a power of attorney or obtaining one in false pretenses, the office said.

Once in control of the bank accounts, the defendants stole from the victims, the office said.

Full Article & Source:
N.J. senior care employee pleads guilty to stealing from elderly clients