Chaffee woman sentenced for defrauding patient

A Chaffee woman was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to five years probation and ordered to pay $48,197.63 in restitution for defrauding an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease through fraudulent credit-card purchases.

Linda Gale Moore, 57, pleaded guilty in July. In doing so, she admitted that during 2000 she befriended June Stubbs, 72, of Chaffee, and used several of the woman's credit cards for personal purchases.

The spending went unnoticed until Moore bought cigarettes at a Chaffee store on Sept. 11, 2000, with one of Stubbs' cards, said the victim's son, Neil Stubbs of St. Louis. A suspicious store clerk called the Chaffee Police Department, which began an investigation.

Police handed the case over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation because several credit card purchases were made with out-of-state businesses.

Neil Stubbs said his mother, June Stubbs, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2000.