Two accused of scamming elderly woman out of more than $300,000

By Kevin Jenkins | August 16, 2014 |

Two rural Farmington residents are accused of scamming an elderly woman and stealing about $300,000 from her.

Cynthia A. Pennington, 54, and Randy S. Pennington, 47, of Farmington, have been charged with the Class A felony of financial exploitation of the elderly (someone defined by state statute as being over the age of 60). Bond on each will be set at $100,000. As of 3 p.m. Friday, they had not been arrested on the warrants that were issued this week.

They are accused of using “undue influence to obtain control” over an elderly woman’s finances between 2008 and October of 2013.

According to court records, the elderly woman owned several properties such as homes and condos. Cynthia Pennington was hired in November of 2006 to do office work for the woman’s company while Randy Pennington was hired later on to handle maintenance work.

In October of 2013, a relative learned that the woman was missing funds and also that a credit card had been opened in her name and in the business name without the woman’s consent or knowledge. The account had nearly $50,000 worth of charges. Payments to the card of $33,600 had been made by the elderly woman’s company.

There were also checks written to motorcycle dealers, gun shops, kennels, as well as expenses for a website, advertising and other expenses related to Randy Pennington’s own company, totaling $268,404. That amount does not include the checks the Penningtons wrote on the account for their salaries.

All of the checks have a signature purported to be Cynthia Pennington’s. Many of the checks have either Randy’s or Cynthia’s driver’s license number written on them.

If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison.