HOME HEALTH AIDE CHARGED WITH STEALING SEVENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS FROM ELDERLY CLIENT

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a home health aide has been charged with grand larceny and other offenses for allegedly forging numerous checks written against an elderly client’s bank account.

54 year old Carmen Lyte, of 992 Rutland Road, Brooklyn, has been charged with Grand larceny in the 2nd degree, Criminal impersonation in the 2nd degree and 53 counts each of Forgery in the 2nd degree, Criminal possession of a forged instrument in the 2nd degree, Grand larceny in the 4th degree and Petit larceny.

It is alleged that the crimes occurred between June 1, 2001 and May 29, 2002, while the defendant was employed to care for an 87 year old woman at the client’s home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Lyte is accused of removing blank checks from the victim’s checkbook, making them payable to her herself and then forging the victim’s signature on the stolen checks. When the victim’s monthly bank statements arrived in the mail, the defendant allegedly opened the statements and removed the canceled forged checks.

The scheme began to unravel when the elderly but mentally alert victim became suspicious and told a relative that she was concerned about the missing checks. The relative contacted an attorney who in turn notified the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and Senior Home Care Inc., a Manhattan based agency that fired the defendant and cooperated with the investigation.

Lyte is facing a maximum sentence of up to fifteen years imprisonment if convicted of the most serious offense of Grand Larceny in the 2nd degree, a Class "C" felony offense. Criminal Court Judge Harold Adler set bail for the defendant at $15,000 cash or $7,500 bond.

The case was investigated by NYPD Detective Kristen Jones of the DA’s Squad and is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jose Arocho of the Investigations Division’s Arson / Auto / Economic Fraud Bureau.