'Just absolute scum of the earth': Family upset after senior with dementia defrauded by someone posing as care worker

Seventy-nine-year-old William Herbert thought the woman coming to see him was a nurse who needed to do bloodwork.

But instead of helping him, it’s alleged she stole from him.

Herbert, who has dementia, was still living independently with support last March, when his niece received a phone call from a blocked number.

“A woman identified herself as … a nurse from Fraser Health,” explained Laura-Lee Herbert.

The caller said she’d be visiting Herbert's uncle the next day.

Herbert didn’t think much of it.

“We would have care aides that would go in there three or four times a day and we would have nurses from Fraser Health that would attend his residence once or twice a month,” Herbert said.

But a few days later, when she took her uncle to run errands and they stopped at his TD Bank branch in Surrey, she discovered his bank card was missing.

Inside the bank, a teller would explain that there was only $12 left in his account after someone had made three withdrawls.

“I was just flabbergasted,” Herbert said. “Thankfully, it wasn’t a huge amount, but $600 to someone who lives on pension is still $600.”

Herbert said her uncle is one of 21 alleged victims of a woman who police say posed as a care aide and a nurse, stealing from vulnerable seniors.

“This was a very extensive and complex investigation,” said Cpl. Vanessa Munn of the Surrey RCMP.

“In June 2022, the Surrey RCMP Financial Crime Unit launched an investigation following a fraud involving credit cards that were allegedly stolen from an elderly victim in Richmond,” she said.

Thirty-year-old Ana Chamdal is now facing 77 charges and is being held in custody.

“Some of those charges include fraud over $5,000, unlawfully in a dwelling house, assault, possession of forged documents, possession of stolen credit cards,” explained Munn.

All of the alleged victims are seniors.

Seventy-nine-year-old William Herbert thought the woman coming to see him was a nurse who needed to do bloodwork. But instead of helping him, it’s alleged she stole from him.

“We all have those elderly people in our lives that may be a little bit more vulnerable and potentially on fixed income, so being defrauded, it really does have a large impact on them,” she said. “We just want to remind members of our community about the importance of being in touch with your elderly loved ones, knowing who’s in their home caring for them, and you’re making sure you are taking steps to monitor their finances."

Meanwhile, Herbert said she is still battling her uncle’s bank, trying to get back what a fraudster took.

“Someone who does that to seniors, just absolute scum of the earth,” she said.

But more than that, she said the theft has left her elderly uncle afraid of the very health-care workers he now needs around the clock.