RIVERSIDE, Calif., April 25 (UPI) -- A Southern California woman and her husband have been charged with stealing $200,000 from her elderly mother.
Brooke Bailey, 47, and Anthony Bailey, 35, are free on bail, the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise reported Monday. They were arrested this month.
Investigators say Tanya Siciliano trusted her daughter completely and gave her thousands of dollars in gifts, including help in the Baileys' purchase of a home and funds for Anthony Bailey to go to school. The couple allegedly wanted more and ran up charges on Siciliano's credit cards and wrote checks on her account for items like plastic surgery, a custom salt-water aquarium and photography equipment for Bailey's business.
John Siciliano, a lawyer in Temecula, Calif., has sued his half-sister and her husband, seeking to recover the stolen money for his stepmother. In documents filed in the civil case, he said his half-sister left her mother in "financial ruination."
"It's a tragedy," he said. "It's an abuse of an elderly 74-year-old lady by family members that she trusted."
