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An elderly woman living at a Southwestern Ontario retirement home where police allege a fraud duped several people out of more than $50,000 is facing a new stressor, her family says – an increase that would more than double her rent.
Miranda Guitard said her husband’s 90-year-old grandmother, who has been diagnosed with dementia, became a resident at Trillium Care Norwich in June at a cost of $1,500 a month. Guitard said she’s since been told the monthly cost will jump to $3,920 in January.
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“How can you justify that?” Guitard said.
The increase is the latest stress for Guitard as Ontario Provincial Police continue to probe an alleged fraud they say affected several people at a retirement home in Norwich, a town of roughly 11,000 south of Woodstock. Police have not made public details of the investigation or publicly named the retirement home at the centre of it.
But Guitard said she sent payments to an email address that had been provided to her by a senior staff member at Trillium Care when her husband’s grandmother moved into the facility. She said she wasn’t given a lease agreement.
She said she was later told by an employee at Trillium that the more than $6,000 in payments she made via email money transfers never made it to the home.
Ontario Provincial Police in Oxford County say they launched an investigation on Aug. 21 into numerous alleged frauds at a retirement home. Police have said they have one suspect, though no charges have been laid. They said several people are out more than $50,000.
Const. Randi Crawford said this week that investigators have sought people’s banking information, noting “the results can take some time.”
A person who answered the phone at Trillium declined comment on the fraud probe or the rent increase.
Guitard said she is seeking a new nursing home for her husband’s grandmother.
“The goal is to have her out within a month’s time,” Guitard said.
bwilliams@postmedia.com
@BrianWatLFPress
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada
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