HOME HEALTH AIDE IS CONVICTED FOR STEALING SEVENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS FROM AN ELDERLY CLIENT

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 55 year-old home health aide has been convicted of grand larceny for forging numerous checks written against an elderly client’s bank account.

A Bronx jury found Carmen Lyte, of 992 Rutland Road, Brooklyn guilty of Grand Larceny in the 2nd degree, a class "C" felony offense. Lyte is facing a maximum term of up to 15 years imprisonment when she appears before acting State Supreme Court Justice Michael R. Sonberg for sentencing on Wednesday, December 3, 2003 in Part T22.

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 removed blank checks from the victim’s checkbook, made them payable to herself and then forged the victim’s signature on the stolen checks. When the victim’s monthly bank statement arrived in the mail, the defendant would open the statements and remove 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 employed the defendant. The agency fired the defendant and cooperated with investigators.

This case was investigated by NYPD Detective Kristen Jones of the DA’s Squad and is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Earamichia N. Brown of the Arson / Economic Crime Bureau.