Photo: Shelah L. Ellison
A Mountain Home woman, 49-year-old Shelah L. Ellison, has been arrested and charged with theft and fraud following an investigation into a complaint filed with the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff John Montgomery says the complaint alleged Ellison had embezzled funds and committed credit card fraud after being hired as a caregiver for an elderly woman. Montgomery says Ellison had been hired at an agreed-upon daily wage for Monday through Friday and would be paid at the first of the month for the upcoming month’s work. Ellison was later engaged to also provide assistance to the woman on the weekends for a separate agreed-upon amount of compensation.
The elderly woman provided Ellison with a credit card in order to purchase groceries and supplies for her client. Ellison would also use blank pre-signed checks on the woman’s account to pay her client’s monthly bills and maintained her checkbook register.
In July 2021, a bill was discovered that was supposed to have been paid by Ellison. Bank statements were researched to see if a check for the bill had cleared the account.
During this research, unusual large transactions on the account were discovered, and the victim’s daughter was contacted and made aware of them. Subsequent research uncovered many unauthorized transactions on the elderly woman’s bank accounts and credit card. These included a transaction of $45,000 used to pay off Ellison’s personal vehicle.
In total, there was evidence that $62,637 of the woman’s monies had been taken and used without the victim’s consent or authorization. When confronted by relatives, Ellison repaid the $45,000 she had used to pay off her vehicle.
In an interview with a sheriff’s investigator about the transactions, Ellison alleged the woman gifted her several things, including paying off her vehicle. She also alleged she was allowed by the woman she was caring for to use her credit card for personal items with agreement to pay the money back later.
Ellison surrendered herself at the Baxter County Detention Center on Thursday and was booked on felony charges of theft of property, fraudulent use of a credit card and obtaining signature by deception.
She was released from custody after posting $50,000 bond and will appear before the circuit court to answer in November.
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