A tree service worker was arrested after he allegedly took $3,622 from a 77-year-old woman with the onset of dementia.
Joseph Casteel, 38, of Fruitland Park, was arrested Saturday on charges of scheme to defraud and grand theft from a person over the age of 65. He is also charged with violating his probation on a charge of battery.
He allegedly went to the woman’s home and convinced her to write a check to another woman who had accompanied him to the elderly woman’s home. The other woman cashed the check for Casteel and gave him the money, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
The elderly woman had also been defrauded in March and she believed Casteel had been involved in that case, too, the arrest report indicated.
Casteel attempted to convince the deputy he had completed work at the woman’s home and deserved the money.
Casteel had been arrested last year after allegedly choking his mother. You can read more about that incident HERE
