Caregiver received more than €600,000 and two apartments from elderly woman, sentenced to six years in prison

The Ancona Court has sentenced a caregiver to six years in prison after she was accused of taking more than €600,000 from the 94-year-old woman in her care.

In addition to the sums of money, the caregiver is suspected of having benefited from the elderly woman’s assets in cooperation with her partner. For his role in the case, the partner was sentenced to five years in prison.

Investigators found that the couple’s alleged plan began in February 2020. By November of the same year, the caregiver is believed to have repeatedly withdrawn substantial sums from the bank accounts of the widow, who had been the wife of a well-known lawyer in Ancona.

According to the investigation files, her actions were not limited to the bank funds. She is suspected of exerting influence and pressure on the elderly woman, becoming the beneficiary of life insurance policies worth more than €1 million.

The caregiver had also been appointed the 94-year-old’s universal heir and, in this way, would have inherited two apartments in the tourist area of the Conero Riviera. In total, the assets involved in the case were worth more than €2 million.

Suspicions of irregularities were initially raised by the Guardia di Finanza, Italy’s financial police. In September 2020, the agency launched an investigation by the Ancona Prosecutor’s Office.

During a court-ordered assessment conducted at the investigation stage, the elderly woman was deemed capable of understanding and acting. However, the court concluded that she was in a situation of particular fragility and vulnerability.

The judge found that her dependence on the caregiver had affected her ability to make independent and free decisions regarding her assets and inheritance.

Meanwhile, as part of civil proceedings, the 94-year-old’s legal heirs had earlier succeeded in having the will annulled, through which the caregiver had been declared the universal heir.

The elderly woman died in May 2025 without seeing the judicial proceedings through to the end. The Ancona Court’s ruling concludes a case involving allegations that large sums of money were misappropriated and that the assets of a vulnerable elderly woman were obtained.