The Face of a Father’s Thief

Written by Andy Wise on May 1, 2018. Posted in Wise Warnings.

It’s the face of his daughter. Her arrest has a #WiseChoice alerting us to the risk of family fraud.

She’s Amanda Miller. She’s 40 years old. She just ripped off her dad.

Authorities booked the Taylorsville, Mississippi woman into the Pearl River County (MS) jail April 25 after a Mississippi Attorney General’s Vulnerable Persons Unit investigation led to her indictment on one count of exploitation. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said she stole more than $20,000 from her elderly father.

“The indictment states she took the money for her own use over the course of three years,” wrote Mississippi Attorney General Communications Director Margaret Ann Morgan in a news release.

Her arrest comes less than two months after I posted this Facebook warning about the emergence of family fraud. Home Instead Senior Care of Memphis/Oxford/Southaven, your #WiseChoice for in-home senior care, published this blog post exposing the trend of relatives betraying their elderly parents and grandparents out of need — or out of greed.

“While we know that family members often provide loving and trusted care for seniors, sometimes family members have motives beyond the well-being of their loved ones,” said Ken Cope, president and CEO of Home Instead Senior Care of Memphis/Oxford/Southaven. “And sometimes these motives aren’t discovered until much damage is done to the senior.”

According to Home Instead Senior Care’s ProtectingSeniorsOnline.com, three conditions drive families and friends to steal from their seniors: perceived need, a sense of entitlement and opportunity. The online resource quoted Tiffany Couch CFE CPA CFF, principal at Acuity Forensics, in saying seniors and their trustworthy caretakers should put safeguards in place, including explicitly specific wills and a third-party (banker, accountant, lawyer) to monitor seniors’ accounts.

They should also consider a reliable, in-home care service like Home Instead Senior Care to help keep an eye on what’s going on in the senior’s house.

“By providing help in the home for a loved one with a trusted agency like Home Instead Senior Care, the senior can know their care is being provided by a proven source which has taken all the necessary steps to ensuring the safety and well-being of the senior,” Cope said. “Steps like proven hiring standards for employees, professional training and insurance to cover any unexpected events.”

Miller’s betrayal of her father has her facing a maximum of ten years in prison.