A 51 year old Stevensville woman entered a guilty plea to embezzlement in the Queen Anne’s County Circuit Court on May 5, 2015.  A year long investigation conducted by the Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Office and the State’s Attorney’s Office resulted in the arrest and subsequent conviction of Diane Warfield who swindled over $100,000 from an elderly Chester man whom she was providing in-home care.  Ms. Warfield was initially hired by the elderly gentleman through a company named Rainey Daze Home Care.

After several months of providing care to the elderly gentleman, Ms. Warfield became directly employed by the elderly man.  Between June 2011 and October 2013 Ms. Warfield was able to access several banking accounts owned by the elderly man and proceeded to make a high volume of ATM withdrawals and began using the gentleman’s banking accounts to pay for a large number of her personal expenses.  These expenses were for herself, friends and family members.  The transactions included, but are not limited to, Delmarva Power, Comcast, Atlantic Broadband, Erie Insurance Company, Securus Correctional Billing Services, IC Solutions Correctional Billing Services, airline tickets and prepaid phone cards.

In the spring of 2013 the elderly gentleman began to get very sick and was in and out of the hospital for extended stays.  At the end of August the gentleman moved into a healthcare facility and would never return home as he later passed away in March of 2014 due to his illness.  Family members of the elderly man began noticing that a substantial amount of money was missing from the gentleman’s banking accounts and notified authorities.

The investigation revealed that during the time frame that Warfield had access to the banking accounts she stole in excess of $112,000.  Warfield will be sentenced June 10, 2015 in the Circuit Court.

This case was prosecuted by Deputy State’s Attorney Christine Dulla Rickard.

UPDATE:

On June 10, 2015 Warfield was sentenced to 30 months incarceration, the sentence was suspended by the Circuit Court Judge.  She was placed on 2 years probation.