Two charged with elderly exploitation

By ANGELA MOORE

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 17, 2000

TAMPA -- A Citrus Park couple has been charged with fleecing an 80-year-old Tampa widow out of $300,000, leaving her almost penniless.

Fred R. Beman III, 37, and his wife, Annmarie Adams-Beman, 32, were arrested Tuesday morning and charged with grand theft and exploitation of the elderly, both first-degree felonies. Each was held in county jail under $26,000 bail, and both had posted bond by late Tuesday.

Two years ago, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said, Fred Beman befriended the victim, who had no relatives in Tampa. Beman worked as an exterminator for Orkin, and often serviced the woman's home, said FDLE spokesman Charles Guthrie.

"Their friendship came out of that relationship first, and progressed from there. He called her Grandma and called himself her grandson," Guthrie said. "She was alone and vulnerable, with no one else to look after her. That, coupled with her deteriorating mental state made her a target."

Guthrie said the woman suffers from dementia, a condition that renders some older people incapable of making rational decisions. Her only relative was an older sister living out of state.

In July 1998, around the same time Beman met the elderly woman, he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy under federal law. His request was granted and he was discharged of all his debts, records show. Beman had owed money to eight companies.

But once he and his wife started joint bank accounts with the victim, their past financial trouble disappeared, Guthrie said.

"They got her to write checks out of her savings account, to cash CDs, everything," Guthrie said.

The Bemans, who live in a house assessed by the county property appraiser at about $59,000, were suddenly buying a new car, a boat, expensive electronics, sporting goods and airline tickets, investigators said. Beman, who had worked at Orkin and as a salesman at Sears, became the owner of a dry cleaning business, Tiffany's of Carrollwood. Guthrie said the business was bought with the widow's money.

A friend of the woman noticed what was going on and contacted Tampa police, who turned the case over to FDLE and the state attorney's office.

The victim had to move into an assisted-living facility other than the one she had chosen, Guthrie said, because of the financial trouble. A court-appointed guardian now controls her money and has the authority to sue the Bemans on her behalf. But Guthrie said the chances of her regaining any significant amount of money is slim.

"We'll certainly try to recover her assets," Guthrie said. "But we don't know how successful we'll be."

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