A Baltimore County man repeatedly charged with defrauding the elderly was arrested Monday, more than a month after a grand jury indicted him on 17 counts of felony theft and four counts of exploiting a vulnerable adult.
Paris George, 53, is alleged to have stolen deposits made by Baltimore County customers attempting to purchase medical equipment from 2000 to 2006, according to court records.
The Maryland Attorney General?s Office isprosecuting the case on behalf of George?s alleged 21 victims.
Felony theft is punishable by a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Felony financial abuse of a vulnerable adult carries a maximum penalty of 15 years and a $10,000 fine.
George was convicted of perjury in December in Howard County Circuit Court for lying under oath and presenting fake documents in a prior case that won him an acquittal during a May 2005 trial.
During that trial, he was accused of defrauding a Clarksville couple of a $6,300 wheelchair lift, which George said he would install but never delivered.
Judge Lenore Gelfman sentenced George to five years of supervised probation and ordered him to pay $6,300 to the Clarksville couple he was accused of defrauding.
Prosecutors began investigating George?s documents after he won the 2005 acquittal — using a false invoice to blame another company, RAM Manufacturing Ltd. of Alberta, Canada, for failing to deliver the lift.
But the company?s controller, Sandy Smart, wrote in a letter to the Howard County State?s Attorney?s Office that George falsified the invoice from her company.
In an unrelated case in 2004, a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge ordered George to pay a $75,000 fine for violations of the Consumer Protection Act.
The court ruled that George cheated residents out of medical equipment, including wheelchairs and stair lifts, by selling the items and then failing to provide them, according to the Attorney General?s Office.
