Lower Gwynedd Police Department. Photo by James Short.
Montgomery County Judge Risa Vetri Ferman sentenced a Shabnam McAllister, 61, of the 100 block of Krewstown Lane of Philadelphia, to 14 months to 10 years in prison for financially exploiting an elderly Lower Gwynedd Township woman for more than $113,000, according to The Reporter.
“This was a manipulative scheme to deceive and defraud an elderly woman,” Ferman said, according to the article. “This defendant manipulatively and deceptively began to clear the victim’s bank account. She doesn’t see what she did as wrong. She felt entitled.
“You are nothing less than a financial predator,” she added. “You cannot be trusted with someone’s finances. You are nothing more than a thief.”
McAllister will serve her sentence in the State Correctional Institution at Muncy on charges of theft by deception and financial exploitation of an older adult or care dependent person. The incidents occurred between 2018 and 2021 while McAllister worked as a home health aide for the victim, who was 82-years-old at the time the thefts began. According to court documents, McAllister worked as an in-home health aide for the Lower Gwynedd woman who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Testimony revealed the thefts occurred when McAllister wrote dozens of unauthorized, extra checks to herself, as part of her salary, from the victim’s bank account, according to the article.
McAllister also must complete 100 hours of community service.
“These were conscious actions the defendant took over several years,” said Assistant District Attorney Hannah Victor. “And the fact they had a relationship makes it even worse. The defendant preyed upon a trust and wrote herself multiple extra checks,” said Victor, adding the victim was geographically separated from her family and relied on McAllister for assistance.”
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