How's this for a number's game? A 70-year-old man and his 50-year-old former wife are accused of stealing $350,000 from his 91-year-old mother. Add 4 (for the number of felony theft, fraud and forgery charges San Clemente's Peter Garcia and Virginia Kay Furr-Garcia each face) and it could add up to 6 (the number of years in state prison they could get with a conviction).
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The former couple, who are scheduled to be arraigned in Santa Ana this morning, were still together between Jan. 1, 2009, and Sept. 27, 2010, when they are accused of conspiring to close four annuity funds belonging to Garcia's
mother worth approximately $350,000–without dear ol' mom's consent.
The money was first transferred into a joint account held by Garcia and his mother and then to one he held with his then-wife, according to a statement from the Orange County District Attorney's office, which alleges the stolen funds were used for such personal living expenses
as fuel, utilities and groceries, gas.
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Garcia's mother may be (way) up there in years, but she was with it enough to discover the thefts when she could not afford her senior living home for several months. She contacted the Orange County Sheriff's Department in March, and an investigation led to the ex-couple's arrest Wednesday.
Each
is charged with one felony count of grand theft, conspiracy to defraud
another of property, conspiracy to commit forgery, and theft from an
elder with sentencing enhancements for property loss over $200,000 and
aggravated white collar crime over $100,000.
They were held in lieu of $500,000 each heading into this morning's arraignment.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.