UPPER EAST SIDE — A former home health aide was sentenced Friday for ripping off an elderly Upper East Side couple in her care — using the $260,000 she stole for shopping sprees and vacations, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
“Stephany Hernandez stole a quarter of a million dollars from her elderly employer to fund luxury shopping sprees and tropical vacations,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said in a statement.
Between February 2014 and March 2015, Hernandez, 25, deposited and cashed 102 forged checks from an elderly couple she worked for at their residence on East 68th Street, according to her guilty plea. She worked for the victim, now 99 years old, and her late husband from late 2012 to August 2014, the New York Daily News reported.
She used the money to buy $18,000 worth of clothing and accessories from Bloomingdale's, Barneys and other retailers, and approximately $12,000 on airfare and hotels, including flights to Miami and the Dominican Republic, according to prosecutors. She also made $35,000 in personal credit card payments and $100,000 in cash withdrawals, according to the DA's office.
The theft was discovered after the victim's husband died at the age of 100 in January 2015, and her son and daughter-in-law reviewed financial records, and then reported it to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Hernandez pleaded guilty to grand larceny in New York State Supreme Court last month, and will serve anywhere from one-and-a-half years to four-and-a-half years in state prison for the theft.
As part of the sentence, the court executed judgment orders, holding her liable to repay more than $260,000, according to the DA's office.
