Couple scammed seniors, cops say

At least 50 customers of home health care workers are victims

A husband and wife accused of siphoning an 87-year-old Pembroke Pines woman’s bank accounts and selling her condo, are also facing a Florida Attorney General Office civil suit alleging they swindled at least 50 other seniors.

The couple targeted the vulnerable seniors, sold them personal care services for bathing, grocery shopping and other daily tasks and did little more than take a collective $250,000 from them, authorities say.

Christopher and Lauren Kydes, of Lighthouse Point, showed up to seniors’ homes unannounced, convinced them to sign contracts with the unlicensed Senior America Home Care, Inc. and then failed to actually provide the senior services, according to a suit filed by the Florida Attorney General’s Office.

The Kydes “prey on these seniors’ fear of being unable to live in their home and unfairly gouge seniors for personal services they often do not need or use,” the complaint says, alleging the scam began in 2014.

Victims came from throughout South Florida in cities including Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Lauderhill, West Palm Beach, Tamarac and Miami, according to Whitney Ray, spokesman for the state’s Attorney General’s Office.

In one case, a senior paid more

than $4,000 for services she never used and months later was charged an additional $6,000 — at an hourly rate double what she originally paid, officials said. Seniors paid anywhere from $17 to $40 per hour for the unused home health services. According to the complaint, the contracts forbade seniors from using services within the first six months.

Less than 5 percent of the money the Kydes took from seniors was actually used for services for the elderly, and the Kydes used most of that money to pay their mortgage and for home improvements, authorities said.

At least one victim was given a refund before the Attorney General’s Office filed the lawsuit, Ray said.

“It is unclear at this point in our ongoing litigation if the defendant has issued any additional refunds, but we continue to seek restitution for victims,” he said, in an emailed statement.

Sanford Topkin, the Kydes’ attorney in the civil suit, on Thursday said the business his client runs is legitimate.

“My client has a totally legal business; he sells prepaid home health hours,” Sanford said. “He’s done nothing wrong and we look forward to litigating the case to trial.”

The Kydes were most recently arrested in Pembroke Pines and charged in connection with the exploitation of the 87-year-old woman from whom they stole more than $135,000, police said. The Kydes bonded out of jail on June 15, jail records show.

According to police, Christopher Kydes, 57, befriended the Pembroke Pines woman and ultimately moved her out of her Century Village condo and into an assisted living facility in Deerfield Beach after obtaining power of attorney over her.

After emptying her condo and tossing her belongings, Lauren Kydes, 55, a real estate agent, sold the senior’s home, police said. Christopher Kydes also liquidated the woman’s retirement account and siphoned her money into their personal business accounts, bank records showed.

Court records show that Lauren Kydes has pleaded not guilty in that case. The Kydes’ attorney in the criminal case, Andrew Coffey, said the couple are innocent and had police, during their investigation, reached out to his clients or the law office working with them, “they would have realized that any criminal activity alleged to have [been] committed by the Kydes was completely baseless.”

Lauren, Christopher Kydes