Caretaker pleads guilty to stealing nearly $300,000 from Broward couple

A caretaker for an elderly couple in Plantation pleaded guilty to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from them to pay off her credit cards, put a down payment on a home and pay for her daughter’s wedding reception, court records say.

Sherri Lynn Smith, 52, pleaded guilty to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges Thursday. She faces a maximum possible sentence of 34 years in prison, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Court records say Smith started working for the couple, who are both in their mid-90s, in 2016 after one suffered a stroke. She grocery shopped, cooked, did housework, drove them to appointments and helped with their banking for $15 an hour.

Prosecutors said Smith forged signatures on checks written to herself and other people and businesses from the couple’s account and made numerous transfers from their accounts to her bank and credit card accounts. It wasn’t until 2019 that the couple’s son-in-law found what Smith had done, records say.

Among the forged checks Smith drew from the husband and wife’s accounts were a $500 check to a ballroom to pay for her own daughter’s wedding reception, a $1,300 payment to her son-in-law and a $16,000 check she used to put a down payment on a home in Tamarac in 2018, records say.

Smith later used money stolen from the couple to buy an air-conditioning unit, a fence and windows for her home, records say. She stole a total of over $288,800 from the couple’s accounts during her years caring for them, and to cover up her spending, she transferred money from their savings account into their checking account, records show.

Smith will be sentenced in August, records say.