Man charged with scamming elderly woman

CHARLES TOWN - An Inwood man accused of attempting to bilk a 77-year-old woman out of more than $2,500 after allegedly paving her driveway without her or her husband's permission was arrested Tuesday on one felony count of attempted false pretenses.

Timothy Lee Hamilton, 40, of Harranda Court, was later arraigned and released from custody Wednesday on $7,500 bail.

According to court records, Detective Sgt. Victor Lupis of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department received at call from Jefferson County Central Dispatch at about 3:31 p.m. Tuesday for a possible kidnapping complaint at the Bank of Charles Town off Charles Town Road.

The alleged victim was described as an elderly woman who was attempting to withdraw cash from her account. Further information provided to police indicated two individuals, later identified as Hamilton and a juvenile, brought the woman to the bank and were waiting for her in a sports utility vehicle, records show.

Police arrived at the bank minutes later, where they found the accused and the alleged victim. The woman told police she was brought to the bank by the accused to withdraw $2,500 in cash for driveway work that neither she nor her elderly husband had authorized at their Jefferson County home. The woman said Hamilton and other unidentified men came to her porch earlier in the day asking her and her husband if they wanted their driveway paved. The woman and her husband denied their services, records show.

The alleged victim told police that when she left her home to walk her dog, Hamilton and the other individuals approached her and said they had gotten her husband's permission to pave the driveway. The woman's husband suffers from Alzheimer's disease, she said, and the alleged victim told police she knew he wouldn't have given them permission to do so. When the elderly woman walked back to her residence, she found that Hamilton and the other unknown individuals had dumped and packed crushed stone on her driveway. Hamilton then allegedly approached the woman and told her that she owned him $4,000 for the job, records show.

The alleged victim told police she gave Hamilton $400 in cash, and the accused then offered to drive her to the bank to get $2,500 "owed" to him, records show.

The woman agreed to go to the bank with Hamilton and a juvenile male. The bank branch manager told police that the alleged victim, who didn't have a history of making large withdrawals, appeared nervous when she arrived at the bank. The manager also told police she knew the woman had never been in the type of vehicle Hamilton had dropped her off in, so she notified the police, records show.

Hamilton was placed under arrest and the juvenile was released to the custody of his mother. During processing, Hamilton declined to provide a statement to police and declined to identify the other individuals who allegedly accompanied him to the victim's home, records show.

- Staff writer Edward Marshall can be reached at 304-263-8931, ext. 182.

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Man charged with scamming elderly woman