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On April 2, 2014, the Toronto Police Service reported1 on the arrests of two individuals accused of defrauding a 94-year old woman.
Norma Marshall lives on her own. After her housekeeper had been unable to continue to work for her, she hired another house cleaner to help take care of her home. The housekeeper worked for Ms. Marshall for some four years.
Over time, the housekeeper started attending more frequently at the home, and offering assistance with other tasks such as cooking. Amid discussion of Ms. Marshall moving to Portugal with the housekeeper and her family, the housekeeper and her husband and two children moved into Ms. Marshall’s home. Ms. Marshall was displaced from her own room and moved into a smaller bedroom where she was confined. It is alleged that during that time the housekeeper and her husband sold Ms. Marshall’s belongings and took her life savings of some $25,000.00.
The fraud was discovered by Firoz Jogial who delivers Ms. Marshall’s medications from her pharmacy. When he delivered Ms. Marshall’s medications, Mr. Jogial noticed that Ms. Marshall was not answering the door as she usually did. The man who answered the door told Mr. Jogial that he was a family member, which Mr. Jogial did not believe. Mr. Jogial was allowed into the home to see Ms. Marshall in bed. Mr. Jogial described Ms. Marshall as looking scared. Concerned, Mr. Jogial alerted the pharmacist Selina Chan-Ying with whom he works. Ms. Chan-Ying telephoned the police who subsequently arrested the housekeeper and her husband. They face charges of theft, fraud, mischief to interfere and being unlawfully in a dwelling place.
Ms. Marshall described the feeling of being defrauded which went further than just taking her money: “What it does to you is emotionally worse…”
Constable Patricia Fleischmann, the Toronto Police Service’s Vulnerable Persons Coordinator described this case as one where the older person does nothing wrong and is simply victimized because he or she is vulnerable. Constable Fleischmann calls on everyone to be alert to the possibility of older adults being taken advantage of.
Although Ms. Marshall has no doubt suffered at the hands of the perpetrators, at least the abuse has come to an end, thanks in no small part to the actions of concerned and alert people around her.
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1. Toronto Police Services News: http://tpsnews.ca/stories/2014/04/94-year-old-target-fraud/
