Massachusetts Gambling Addict Cheats 83 Year Old

Police: Man finances gambling spree with elderly neighbor's credit card
By Julie Manganis
Staff writer The Eagle Tribune


PEABODY — An 83-year-old Dracut woman thought she could rely on her neighbor for help with errands when she was too ill to go out. Instead, she became the victim of credit card fraud, investigators say.

James Hughes, 51, who lived with his mother in the same condo complex as the victim, used the woman's credit card for gambling trips to the Foxwoods casino and the racetrack at Rockingham Park, as well as at stores all over the northeastern part of the state, racking up more than $48,000 in charges, according to state police assigned to the Electronic Crimes Task Force.

He also used the card at other places more than 100 times, including at stores in Peabody and Middleton, as well as in Methuen, Lowell and Chelmsford, investigators say.

And when state police showed up at his mom's condo to question him, they described him as "extremely distracted" by an online card game, Trooper Christopher O'Neil wrote in his report.

Hughes is now facing multiple counts of larceny from a person over 60 and credit card fraud in several jurisdictions, including Salem, Lawrence and Lowell.

He had been held on $45,000 cash bail, set last month by Peabody District Court Judge Richard Mori, but yesterday, Salem Superior Court Judge Timothy Feeley reduced it to $2,500.

That bail reduction came despite an incident in 2010 when Hughes used a spare key to the victim's apartment to get in and hide from police while she was temporarily in a nursing home, according to police. Police found him in a closet, according to O'Neil's report.

The credit card transactions were discovered last fall while the victim's nieces and nephew were going over her finances. At first, the woman, believing Hughes might have charged just a few thousand dollars, didn't want to press charges, but as the figure grew, she spoke to police.

Many of the gambling transactions occurred while the woman was temporarily in a nursing home in 2009, investigators said.

Hughes' lawyer, John Lalikos, has filed a motion seeking to dismiss the charges, contending that there's not enough probable cause to charge Hughes with a crime. A hearing on that is scheduled today in Peabody District Court.