A Commerce woman was arrested Saturday for allegedly stealing money from her elderly mother-in-law.
Melissa Carol Holland was charged with exploitation of an elder person, identity theft and two counts of transaction card fraud in Hall County, according to Sgt. Danny Sridej with the Oakwood Police Department.
"In the beginning of 2016, the daughter of the victim discovered that her mother was having problems at the bank - insufficient funds with the checking account and some of her retirement funds were missing. So she reported it to our agency, suspicion of someone taking [the mother's] money."
Sridej said the victim suffers from dementia. "So this individual (Holland) was able to convince her to sign documents without knowing what she was signing."
Sridej said Holland stole around $12,000 from the victim and opened a line of credit in her name.
"The suspect was able to get money from a loan from the bank under the victim's name, approximately $8,000, and used that to purchase a $7,500 diamond ring for herself," said Sridej.
Additional charges in Banks County may be forthcoming, but at this point the case remained in Hall County, Sridej said.
Holland was booked into the Hall County jail.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/4/391925/commerce-woman-arrested-for-stealing-money-from-elderly-mother-in-law