Photo by James Short.
A Norristown woman is in custody at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility after police accused her of stealing more than $88,000 from a man in Whitpain Township.
Catherine Oleary, 51, has been charged with one felony count of financial exploitation of older adult or care-dependent person, 14 felony counts of access device fraud, 10 felony counts of receiving stolen property, one felony count of theft, 14 misdemeanor counts of forgery, and related offenses following an investigation by the Whitpain Township Police Department.
Court records show Oleary is being held at the county jail on a probation detainer.
According to the criminal complaint, the investigation began in early February, when the man’s daughter filed a report at the police station regarding $88,392.54 that was removed from her father’s account via a series of 17 fraudulent checks that were allegedly written to Oleary. The checks had been cashed between Nov. 13, 2023 and Feb. 7, police said.
Investigators interviewed the man several days later, at which point he stated he knows Oleary and claimed she had previously stolen money and firearms from him, the report states. He stated he had previously paid Oleary for sex on at least three occasions and provided police with records of those payments totaling $1,300 between Sept. 16, 2023 and Sept. 24, 2023, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
The man also told police that his signature had been forged on all 17 checks, officials said.
Bank records showed all of the checks had either been cashed or deposited by Oleary, police said. And surveillance footage from the banks showed Oleary conducting each transaction, according to the report.
“Based upon the facts and circumstances of this investigation, Catherine Oleary forged and cashed 17 fraudulent checks totaling $88,392.54,” police said, in the affidavit. “These funds were withdrawn from [the man’s] bank account. Information obtained from [the bank] confirms the fraudulent transfer of funds from [the man’s] account to Catherine Oleary’s account.”
Charges were filed against Oleary on April 3, however she wasn’t taken into custody until May 19, when she was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Ed Levine. Her next court appearance is a preliminary hearing on May 30 at 11 a.m. in front of Magisterial District Judge Suzan Leonard.
Oleary was on probation at the time of her arrest, after pleading guilty in October 2023 to misdemeanor counts of defiant trespassing and fleeing or attempting to elude officer stemming from a pair of arrests in Whitpain and West Norriton townships. She also has three recently filed criminal cases filed against her out of West Norriton, with charges ranging from felony burglary and access device fraud to misdemeanor theft, receiving stolen property, resisting arrest, evading arrest, and drug offenses.
Court records also show Oleary previous served jail time after pleading guilty to identity theft in 2014 and trespassing in 2017.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause.
