A Lake County man is facing several felony charges of financial exploitation after allegedly seizing control of more than $150,000 from an elderly woman in his care, authorities said.
Harold A. Boyle, 53, is charged by the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office with four class 1 felony counts for his role in the financial scheme, Lake County Sheriff’s Office Chief Christopher Covelli said.
The charges include Financial Exploitation of the Elderly of more than $15K, Theft through Deception of between $100,000 to $150,000, and two counts of Illegal Conduct.
Covelli said a credit union reported to the sheriff’s office in April that they had an elderly customer who was potentially the victim of a financial crime.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the 35600 block of North Wilson Road in unincorporated Round Lake to investigate and learned a 77-year-old victim had added a caretaker to the victim’s financial accounts.
Covelli said sheriff’s office detectives launched an investigation and discovered Boyle took more than $150,000 from the victim over a period of about three months.
Sheriff’s detectives were able to obtain a seizure warrant on Boyle’s financial accounts to capture some of the money he allegedly took from the victim, Covelli said.
In the end, detectives were able to freeze approximately $30,000, he said.
The incident was turned over to the state’s attorney’s office, Covelli said, which obtained a Grand Jury indictment against Boyle on June 24.
Boyle was taken into custody on Tuesday at a residence in the 25100 block of West Linden Lane in Unincorporated Antioch.
Court records show Boyle was not detained following a first appearance court hearing on Tuesday.
He is due back in court on July 16.