Newport Coast man who stole $500,000 from elderly woman with dementia is sentenced to probation

A Newport Coast man was sentenced to five years’ probation after he pleaded guilty Monday to stealing more than $500,000 from a woman in her 90s with dementia.

Thomas Chapman Hood, 69, pleaded guilty in Orange County Superior Court to a felony count of theft from an elder adult, 19 felony counts of acts constituting forgery, and felony sentencing enhancements for aggravated white-collar crime over $500,000 and property damage over $200,000, court records show.

Prosecutors agreed Monday to drop a felony first-degree burglary charge.

Hood was immediately sentenced to probation and ordered to pay the woman $534,850 in restitution.

He also was sentenced to 212 days in jail but was given credit for time already spent in lockup, meaning he will not serve any additional days.

Hood, a licensed real estate broker, was released from jail Tuesday, records show.

Prosecutors said Hood, who was working as an assistant to the woman’s trustee, stole her checkbooks out of the trustee’s home office in March 2015.

Between then and September 2016, prosecutors said, Hood forged the trustee’s signature on dozens of checks totaling $534,850, which he deposited in his personal bank account.

Prosecutors said he used the funds for personal expenses including credit card bills and a two-week vacation to Paris.

In October, the trustee discovered something was wrong when he tried to make a payment from the woman’s account to her assisted-living home and it was denied because of insufficient funds, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

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