FORT PIERCE, Fla. – A woman who admitted to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Broward County couple pleaded guilty to two federal charges connected to the crime.
Sherri Lynn Smith, 52, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft in federal district court in Fort Pierce Thursday, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.
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Smith worked as a caretaker for the elderly couple and had access to the victims’ bank accounts in order to help them pay monthly bills, prosecutors said.
Instead, she used those accounts to pay herself, her family members and her creditors an estimated $300,000 without the couple’s permission.
Smith accomplished this by forging a victim’s signature on several checks and by transferring money from the couple’s bank accounts to her own, officials said.
Smith also admitted to making electronic payments from the victims’ accounts to cover her and her husband’s credit card bills.
Smith is set to be sentenced on August 26. According to the release, she could face up to 34 years in prison.