Home Healthcare Aide Gets 4 Years In Prison For Stealing Identities Of Elderly Scarsdale Couple

A live-in healthcare aide who stole the identities of an elderly Scarsdale couple she was caring for to illegally purchase more than $70,000 worth of luxury items for herself and her husband has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Isabel Wilson was convicted by a federal jury in White Plains in July after a one-week trial. She was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Vincent L. Briccetti in White Plains.

During sentencing, Briccetti called Wilson “a thief” and described her behavior as “despicable.”

Wilson was hired to live with and help the Scarsdale couple in 2005. Both of the victims suffer from dementia.

A federal indictment against Wilson and her trial showed that she used the couple’s names, birth dates and Social Security numbers to open seven credit cards in their names. Wilson then used those cards to pile up $73,000 worth of purchases on plane tickets, furniture, clothing and to put a down payment on a Porcshe.

Wilson was able to hide the purchases by having the credit card statements sent to a post office box that she was able to obtain near the Scarsdale couple’s home. The scam broadened, prosecutors said, when Wilson used falsely-obtained passport in the process of getting a post office box.

 The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Wilson, a citizen of Liberia, showed a U.S. postal clerk the passport as identification. However, the passport was obtained by stealing the identity of a woman in Rhode Island. To do that, Wilson had traveled to Queens County Court to change the Rhode Island woman’s name to her name.

During the investigation, Wilson lied repeatedly about her identity to federal authorities including Secret Service agents and falsely claimed to have been born in North Carolina.

Wilson was convicted of access device fraud, aggravated identity theft, passport fraud, fraudulent use of a Social Security number, falsely claiming U.S. citizenship and making false statements to federal agents.