New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced the arrest of a nursing home employee and two other individuals on charges of stealing a credit card belonging to a Hempstead nursing home patient and spending thousands of dollars on a three-day shopping spree at such department stores as Macys and Victorias Secret.
Arraigned Wednesday on a felony complaint in Nassau County District Court were Jessica Mulkey, a receptionist at the Nassau Extended Care Nursing Home, her aunt, Colett Simpson-Stone, and a third individual, Princess Roberts. The three defendants were each charged with Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a Class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing consumer frauds in the country, said Attorney General Spitzer. Here the victim was a frail senior citizen confined to a nursing facility and unable to fight back.
According to the complaint, Mulkey, while employed at the Nassau Extended Care Nursing Home on November 23, 2002, unlawfully removed a credit card from an envelope addressed to a 93-year-old female resident at the facility and, two days later, activated the stolen card with the assistance of codefendants Roberts and Simpson-Stone. It is alleged that the three defendants then used the credit card on various occasions between November 25 and November 30, 2002, to illegally make purchases totaling nearly $6,700.
The complaint further alleges that merchandise was bought at stores located in the Green Acres Shopping Mall in Valley Stream, Long Island. The credit card billing statements reflect charges of approximately $800 at Victorias Secret; $1,600 at Macys; $1,408 at J.C. Penny; $641 at 9 West; $617 at World Foot Locker; $547 at KB Toys; and $500 at Verizon Wireless.
