A Marblehead man already indicted for theft faces additional charges after he’s been accused of stealing from a 78-year-old man he met at an addiction support group.

Timothy D. Gilbert, 41, who’s behind bars at the Ottawa County jail on $50,000 bond, was indicted by a grand jury this week.

Bank employees called police in mid-December when they noticed the elderly victim making unusual withdrawals from his account, according to Port Clinton police reports.

The victim, a 78-year-old widower, told police he met Gilbert at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Gilbert said his father had recently died and left him a large inheritance, but he needed other money to pay legal fees to obtain the inheritance.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the widower gave Gilbert $11,000 from two bank accounts, according to police reports.

Gilbert asked the man to make checks out to people with different names, which Gilbert then cashed and kept for himself or paid to others for debts, police said.

When confronted by Det. Sgt. Corbin Carpenter, Gilbert said he was only borrowing the money, but changed his story multiple times to try to explain why.

Later, on the way to the jail, Gilbert told another officer he “fell off the wagon” and was abusing heroin again.

While investigating the case, Carpenter learned from Danbury Township Police that they had handled several calls complaining about Gilbert trying to scam people out of money by telling them he needed help getting his father’s inheritance.

Carpenter also checked to see who Gilbert’s father was, learned he died in 2010 and there was no inheritance.

Gilbert faces a felony charge of theft from an elderly person, for which he could be sentenced up to three years in prison.

For information on other indictments handed down this week in Ottawa County, pick up a copy of Friday's Register.

Related File(s): 

Police report on theft from senior