Police: Man swindled Old Lyme man whose house caught fire

Old Lyme — A former Old Lyme resident who lived at a home that caught fire in March pawned $5,700 in goods he had bought with the homeowner’s Home Depot credit card and failed to complete construction work he had promised the owner he would do, town police said.

Fifty-year-old Theodore Cox moved in with his girlfriend, Elizabeth Brand, on the second floor of 9 Bayberry Ridge Road in the summer of 2017, police said. Brand had been taking care of homeowner Robert Regan’s late wife, Florence Hanft.

Because Brand had been a good caretaker, Regan told police, he let her stay in his Old Lyme home after his wife died and helped her create Elizabeth’s Home and Handyman Services LLC, which she was to manage while Cox did the work.

Regan gave Brand a loan of about $10,000 to launch her company and hired her company to do work on a house he bought in New London for $35,000 in December 2017, police said. He wanted the company to fix the home so it could be used to house veterans and be named in honor of his late wife.

Regan also put Cox on his Home Depot credit card account so Cox could purchase tools for the New London home, police said.

Police said Regan learned in December 2017 that Cox had purchased “many tools” with the card and in January removed him as an authorized user. Despite that, Regan gave Cox $5,000 in January to paint the New London home, police said — a home that, as of September, had not been painted. The next month, Regan also gave Cox $2,500 to help cover payroll, police said.

Regan told Brand and Cox to hire a company to handle payroll but police said that never happened.

Police learned about the Home Depot purchases and Regan’s payments to Cox while investigating a March 1 fire at Regan’s Bayberry Ridge Road home. Firefighters used 14,000 gallons of water from tanker trucks to battle the blaze, which significantly damaged the basement and first floor of the 1 1/2-story structure.

Police said Cox made $41,381.53 in purchases using Regan’s card. He pawned $5,700 of the goods at Fall River Pawnbrokers in New London for $2,850, police said.

Police said many of the items Cox purchased weren’t for the New London home as was agreed upon. From the time of the Bayberry Ridge Road fire until the insurance adjuster’s inventory March 12, many tools that had been in the home went missing, police said.

The fire remains under investigation.

Brand has not been charged in the case but Cox, of 46 Sander St., New London, was charged Oct. 13 with first-degree larceny and released on a $50,000 bond. He was due Thursday in New London Superior Court.