A former caregiver at a senior living facility in Oro Valley was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for stealing more than $93,000 from an elderly woman.
Faye Ann Singer had pleaded guilty in May to one count of bank fraud. She was indicted in January on five counts of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Court documents state that Singer worked as a residents’ aide at the senior living community from February 2016 to December 2017. The 92-year-old victim was a resident there from August 2017 to December 2018.
Prosecutors said while working at the facility, Singer gained access to the victim’s banking information. For 17 months, Singer wrote checks for her own personal benefit out of the victim’s account and she used the account information to electronically pay her own bills, for such things as her cellphones, cable service, credit cards, car loans and car insurance.
Singer wrote more than 50 checks from the victim’s account, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a sentencing memorandum. The indictment shows one check Singer made out to herself was for $5,000, an electronic bill payment was for nearly $400 for a utility bill, and another check was for $800 for herself.
Prosecutors said Singer lied when confronted about the thefts, telling investigators that she and the victim had become close friends and the woman was giving her money to help her pay bills. Prosecutors, however, said the victim “vaguely recognized a photograph of the defendant and stated she did not give her any money.”
“The defendant flagrantly used the victim’s bank account as her own personal slush fund,” prosecutors wrote. They said Singer continued stealing money from the woman’s accounts even after she had been fired from the facility in December 2017.
A representative for the victim said the thefts caused her “significant emotional and financial stress,” according to prosecutors. Many of the victim’s bank accounts were frozen for a period of time as a result of the fraud that resulted in the victim not being able to access her Social Security payments. The representative told authorities he had to use $20,000 of his own money to pay for the victim’s care.
In seeking a sentence of two days in jail and five years supervised release, Singer’s attorney said Singer was “deeply embarrassed and sorry for hurting the victim.” Singer said she committed the offense because she became “overwhelmed by the stress of trying to provide an unrealistic lifestyle for her foster children and herself,” the sentencing memorandum states.
