Woman takes money meant for NC in-laws’ medicine, spends it online, feds say
A North Carolina woman who stole from her in-laws stopped getting their medicine when the money ran short, officials say.
Now, Elizabeth Williamson is ordered to pay back more than $95,000 in connection to the years-long scheme, federal officials said Thursday in a news release.
Prosecutors say Williamson took the life savings of her husband’s older parents in a swindle that ran from 2015 to 2017.
It happened while the families lived near Evergreen, an area in Columbus County roughly 55 miles south of Fayetteville.
Officials say Williamson redirected her in-laws’ mail to her house and took checks that were sent to them. She deposited the money into her personal account at least five times, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
She also had power of attorney for her in-laws’ “bank accounts, stole their checkbooks, wrote checks listing herself as payee, and forged their signatures on the checks,” the office’s news release said.
Williamson used their bank information when she bought items online and paid bills, the federal government says.
But when the money started running out, she “stopped refilling her in-laws’ medication,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
She had been handling their medications, bills and other needs while her husband was working, prosecutors said in an indictment filed last year. Officials say the wife stole her in-laws’ “peace of mind” and “systematically deceived them.”
Records show Williamson, 55, pleaded guilty in June to bank fraud and aggregated identity theft.
She was sentenced to nearly four years in prison and five years of supervised release, federal officials say. Williamson also is ordered to pay restitution and give more than $30,000 to the U.S. government, according to prosecutors.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 2:57 PM.
