67 www.rnca.ca By Ariana Kelland, CBC Investigates - Aug. 24, 2022 ‘Who can you trust?’ Lillian Thomey is the picture of financial elder abuse and its consequences. The 80-year-old struggles with debt and is living in shared accommodations in a seniors complex, years after her daughter and son-in-law stole her money. LillianThomey looks pained as she takes a deep breath and pulls her cardigan tightly together. At 80, she sits on a chair in a small waiting room inside the equally small Harbour Grace provincial court. Her son, Paul, is on a loveseat beside her. “I can’t believe it,” Lillian Thomey said, shaking her head. The elderly woman is bracing to see her once-trusted caregivers — her daughter and son-in-law. Jackie Puddister, 54, and her husband Christopher Puddister, 56, were scheduled for sentencing, concluding a years-long saga over missing money, a home sold for $1, and a family torn apart. Lillian Thomey’s case highlights the painful, long-term effects financial crime has on senior citizens. While this case has neared its end, reports of elder financial crimes are growing. Missing money Paul Thomey suspects the theft would never have been caught had his mother not been hospitalized. It was August 2019 and Lillian Thomey was spending a second stint in hospital in St. John’s after suffering what she called a mental breakdown. During a visit, she asked her son to check on her bank account, which he then did at their local bank. “I asked for the balance. [The teller] said $563. And I just shook my head,” Paul Thomey said in a recent interview with CBC News. “This can’t be right.” But it was right. A quick look at the list of transactions in Lillian Thomey’s chequing account revealed there were numerous cash withdrawals and store purchases, even while she was in hospital that summer and the winter before. “I continue scrolling back through the month of July. Same thing … store purchases, cash withdrawals, even made one purchase out of a legal marijuana shop in St. John’s,” Paul Thomey said. Bank records revealed that while she was in hospital for the second time, over $1,800 in cash was withdrawn and just over $1,400 was spent on store purchases. All in less than five weeks. And that was just the beginning. Raising a family John and Lillian Thomey were married for more than 50 years before his passing in 2013. They raised four children together in Harbour Grace. (Submitted by Paul Thomey) Lillian and her husband John Thomey Sr. raised their four children in Harbour Grace. He was an engineer, and she was a homemaker. Together they built their lives in a small bungalow on Alberta Drive. John Thomey Sr. died in 2013, and two years later Lillian asked her daughter Jackie and her husband to move home fromNova Scotia to be her caregivers. They agreed. John and Lillian Thomey were married for more than 50 years before his passing in 2013.They raised four children together in Harbour Grace. (Submitted by Paul Thomey) Paul Thomey links arms with his mother, Lillian Thomey, 80, as they walk into provincial court in Harbour Grace in late June. Dan Arsenault/CBC continued
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