Mom, son charged after disabled pair allegedly defrauded

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This article was published 18/01/2021 (1727 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg mother and son face charges after allegedly defrauding a man and woman, both of whom are mentally disabled, including allegedly stealing $20,000 in federal government pandemic assistance payments.

The suspects are also accused of surreptitiously recording embarrassing videos of the man, as well as giving him an unauthorized and embarrassing tattoo.

The 37-year-old woman — whom the Free Press is not naming as it would identify her 16-year-old co-accused son — has been charged with two counts of fraud, and one count each of voyeurism and assault with a weapon.

Her son has been charged with voyeurism and assault with a weapon.

According to unsealed police search warrant documents obtained by the Free Press, the 56-year-old male victim and 48-year-old female victim moved into the accused’s Transcona home in September 2019, agreeing to pay her monthly rent by way of e-transfer.

Police say the female accused would have the male victim log on to his mobile banking app and then take control of his smartphone to transfer herself the rent payment.

The female victim, the man’s friend, “was able to e-transfer (the female accused) her share of the rent money, but on many occasions, (the accused) would ask her to log on to her TD mobile banking application, take control of her cellphone and send herself an e-transfer payment.”

The female accused “continued the monthly money transfers for the entire year and withdrew almost all the funds from the (man and woman’s) separate bank accounts, leaving them with very little money for themselves,” police documents allege.

Unhappy with the way she and the male victim were treated, the female victim moved back in with her parents in June 2020.

Police allege the female accused and her son recorded the male victim as he used a public washroom, and on other occasions when he was showering. “Unknown persons” later uploaded some of the videos to YouTube.

The man “did not provide any consent and was upset about the video recordings,” police documents say.

Police said sometime in summer 2020, the female accused, who offered eyebrow treatment services from her home, asked the man if he would like his eyebrows trimmed. The man agreed, was given a glass of vodka and Gatorade, lay down on his stomach, and fell asleep.

He awoke later and saw the woman and some of her friends laughing at him. He later discovered the woman had used her microblading equipment to tattoo a large penis on his back.

The man is “absolutely devastated by this, he cannot go shirtless, and will have to live with this the rest of his life,” police documents say.

The man moved out sometime later, to his female friend’s parents. The parents helped the two secure their bank records and learned someone had applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit in their names.

The man and woman “were unaware that they were receiving the CERB benefit and believed that (the female accused) was entitled to the funds,” police documents say.

A review of the man’s bank records showed he had received 12 CERB payments of $1,000 each, almost all of which was withdrawn by e-transfer “almost immediately” after being deposited, police documents say.

The man “completely trusted (the female accused) and advised that he didn’t understand what was happening and didn’t know what the CERB benefit was,” police documents say.

The female victim received $8,000 in CERB deposits, “all followed by an immediate e-transfer withdrawal,” documents say.

Both victims told police they believed the CERB payments were lottery winnings the accused woman deposited into their accounts.

The female accused allegedly referred to the deposits as her “lucky account.” The male victim “didn’t understand how or why (she) needed to use his TD bank account to receive the lottery money, but he totally trusted her,” documents say.

The two accused are set to appear in court April 13.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca