Stroke-Stricken Mom To Lose Family Home After Convicted Thief/Son Scammed Her In $137K Ripoff, Stiffing Bank On House Payments

In Spokane, Washington, KXLY-TV Channel 4 reports:

• A South Hill woman is about to lose her home to foreclosure because her son looted her life savings to feed his gambling addiction. Mary Jo English developed some health problems a couple of years ago and so her oldest son Mark assumed command of her finances including mailing the mortgage payments on her home.

• However Mark never sent those checks because that would have limited the amount of money available for him to steal from his own mother. “We have to find some place to live within two weeks and I just don't know how that's going to happen,” Mary Jo English said.

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• It started with the pair of strokes that has left Mary Jo English's speech slurred. Her son used her illness to assume command of her finances. Police say he stole $137,000 of his mom’s money and lost it to the casinos.

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• Mary Jo didn't know she was behind on her house payments because Mark had redirected all of her mail to a post office box. Now her other son Daniel is struggling to raise the $21,000 Mary Jo needs to stop the foreclosure. “I’m hoping somehow to get the banks to give her her money back to replenish the money back into her account so she can pay back the money in arrears and to keep her house,” Daniel said.

• Mark English was convicted of theft last month and ordered to make restitution to his mother but the money won't come soon enough to save his mom’s home.

For more, see Woman Loses Savings To Son's Gambling Habit.