Scammers guilty of bilking elderly Verona woman

STAUNTON - Two men who offered an elderly Verona woman free paving work before bilking her out of $10,000 pleaded guilty Wednesday to a multitude of felony charges in Augusta County Circuit Court.

The paving scam took place in May of 2017 when a group of men approached an 84-year-old woman on Beverley Street in Verona with an offer of free painting and sealing for her driveway.

The woman, who suffers from dementia, accepted the deal. But after the men began working on the driveway, they told her she would instead be charged $3 per square foot, according to the Augusta County Sheriff's Office.

Later, after supposedly finishing the work, the men told the woman the job would cost her $4,000. After she told the men she didn't have that kind of money, authorities said a check was taken from her, forged and cashed for $6,000. 

That same day, after cashing the check and pocketing the money, according to the sheriff's office, the men returned to the woman's home and demanded another payment.

When the woman refused, Augusta County assistant prosecutor Lorna Port said one of the men grabbed a second check from the woman and forged her signature. Another $4,000 was then withdrawn from the woman's checking account, Port said.

The scam was reported the next day, resulting in the arrest of Virgil Henry Jr., 37, of Strasburg. A second suspect, Belcher Grady, 34, also of Strasburg, was charged in January.

A third suspect remains at-large.

In court Wednesday, both men pleaded guilty to multiple charges of exploitation of an incapacitated adult, construction fraud and forgery.

Henry was given two years of home incarceration. 

Grady was was sentenced to five years behind bars but the sentence was suspended in its entirety, giving him no time to serve.

Both men were ordered to pay restitution to the victim, Port said.

Full Article & Source:
Scammers guilty of bilking elderly Verona woman