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Warrants allege Covington caregiver exploited 88-year-old woman
Charges woman with using victim's credit card, checks to gain $120,000 over two years
Sheriff's car

COVINGTON, Ga. — A Covington caregiver is facing charges of illegally using a credit card and forged checks to withdraw $120,000 from her elderly patient's accounts for more than two years. 

Doreen James, 56, of Heaton Hill Drive was arrested Monday, March 14, and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on the charges April 20 in Newton County Magistrate Court.

James was charged with 214 counts of Financial Transaction Card Fraud after using the unknowing, 88-year-old victim’s credit card for her personal use for more than a year in 2021.

She also was charged with 21 counts of Forgery after using checks for her personal use from the victim's account between mid-2019 and September 2021; and one count of Abuse/Neglect/Exploiting a Disabled or Elderly Person in relation to the case .

A second person, James’ husband, Kenneth Matthew James, 56, also of Heaton Hill Drive, was charged Dec. 23, 2021, with seven counts of Theft by Taking and one count each of Abuse and Conspiracy to Commit a Crime in relation to the alleged incidents. 

The victim — whom James cared for in a private residence on Salem Road — discovered the theft and told a Newton County sheriff's deputy that "her caretaker has been stealing money from her for several years," an incident report stated. 

Warrants allege that Doreen James used the victim’s credit card to pay her personal bills, “eat out and buy goods” without the victim’s knowledge between Sept. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021.

Doreen James also “knowingly exploited” the elderly victim by illegally depositing forged checks from the victim’s bank account into the personal account of her and husband, Kenneth James, at Chase Bank, a warrant alleged.

The action “purports to have been made by authority of one who did not give such authority” between June 6, 2019, and Sept. 30, 2021, the warrant stated.

Doreen James was being held without bond in the Newton County Detention Center Thursday, March 17.

Kenneth James was no longer being held in the detention center Thursday, according to jail records. 

The investigation has been turned over to the Newton County District Attorney's office, a spokesperson said.