A Pennsylvania man will stand trial for his role in allegedly bilking more than $700,000 from more than 250 seniors in scams involving home care services, home security services, and insurance counseling services, reports PhillyBurbs.com.
Ross Rabelow will be taken to trial on more than 1,000 charges stemming from the scams, which also involved Bruce Cherry, Thomas Muldoon, and Robert Lerner, all of Philadelphia.
A woman whose now-deceased mother had signed a contract with American Comfort Home Care—headed by Rabelow with Cherry as a primary salesman—testified during the preliminary hearing that the company did not deliver the home care services it was supposed to give. Following a hospital visit for an elective surgery, the witness and her brother attempted to care for their mother for about two months before needing additional help and turning to the American Comfort contract.
It was at that time that Mott told him her mother would need between 20 to 25 hours of service a week and gave him a schedule of when a caregiver was to come to the home and what services would have to be provided.
Rabelow balked at the hours, stating they should start out slowly and see if the hours needed to be increased. He told her he had someone in mind for the job, according to Mott’s testimony.
Rabelow advertised on Craigslist for a caregiver and, after meeting an applicant in a doughnut shop, hired her. He told the applicant, who had a full-time job as an accounting assistant, that she would be working three hours, two evenings a week.
Shortly after the caregiver began working in July, it became apparent to both Mott and the caregiver that Mott’s mother needed far more assistance than two evenings a week, Mott testified. However, despite Mott’s multiple requests to Rabelow and to the caregiver, those hours were never expanded.AdvertisementSenior Deputy Attorney General M. Eric Schoenberg, who is prosecuting the case, said that only a few American Comfort clients ever received services for which they had paid. The services that they received, “always on a scale much smaller than requested,” came about only because of persistent family members, he said.
Rabelow had developed a strategy of “delay, lies, excuses, evasions and outright refusals” when it came to providing services.
Only 3 percent of the funds coming into the company’s business account ever went for services. The remainder of the funds used for commissions as well as for Rabelow’s personal expenses including a home mortgage, cars and student loans, according to Schoenberg.
For more details on the case, read the full article at PhillyBurbs.com.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
