"Helpful" Neighbor Gets 57 Months For Ripping Off Cancer Patient; Stopping Automatic Bank Debit For House Payments Leads To Near Foreclosure

In Fort Worth, Texas, the Star Telegram reports:

• Debilitated by breast cancer, Jody Short of Mansfield was grateful two years ago when a neighbor offered to help care for her after she came home from the hospital. Sixteen months later, Short learned that the neighbor, Janice Gast, whom she considered a friend, had begun using her identity, her credit cards and her bank accounts shortly after she took over Short’s care.

• Gast, 42, was sentenced to prison [last week] after pleading guilty to forging Short’s name on documents and stealing more than $67,000 from her over about a year. State District Judge Sharen Wilson sentenced Gast to concurrent four-year prison terms on charges of felony theft and fraudulent use of identification, and to nine months in state jail on a forgery charge.

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• [Prosecutor Tiffany] Burks said the worst thing Gast did was stopping the automatic bank debit for Short’s monthly mortgage payments. "Her lender was in the process of filing a foreclosure, so she almost lost her home," Burks said.

For the story, see Neighbor who stole from cancer patient gets 4 years, 9 months in prison. FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha