87 Year Old Woman Loses Savings Due to Elder Abuse
Rgj.com has reported that an 87-year-old woman has been the victim of elder abuse when a neighbor of hers obtained power of attorney over the woman’s estate and wiped out the woman’s bank accounts. The 87-year-old woman reportedly saved an inheritance she obtained when her children died. The woman’s neighbor – Peggy Six – reportedly gambled part of the money that she stole from the woman and purchased a mobile home and a car with the rest.
Six is reported to have had an accomplice in the crime – a real estate agent named Robin Benjamin. Benjamin transferred the woman’s house to his name and Six and Benjamin placed the woman in a private elder care facility. The woman’s home was subsequently sold. According to the report, nobody was made aware of the situation until the elder care facility where she was placed stopped receiving payments on the woman’s behalf. Six and Benjamin both reportedly face a trial sometime next month.
Financial abuse of any kind is a travesty no matter who it happens to. However, when it occurs to an elderly individual, it makes things much worse because oftentimes elderly people don’t always have the ability to come to their own defense. This appears to be one of those cases when an elderly woman had everything stolen right out from under her. Elder financial abuse is one of several types of elder abuse that most commonly occurs because the perpetrators realize that there is little chance that the victim will even be aware of the crime in the first place, as was the case in this unfortunate and terrible incident.
