NORTH HAVERHILL — A 58-year-old Enfield woman pleaded guilty in superior court and was sentenced to jail for misappropriating funds entrusted to her management to provide care for her ailing mother.
Debra Bailey pleaded guilty to a single class A felony count of financial exploitation of an elderly adult in Grafton Superior Court on Tuesday and was sentenced to 12 months in the House of Corrections, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office announced.
Bailey, who was appointed guardian of her then 76-year-old mother’s financial affairs as her mother suffered dementia, was arrested and charged in 2021 with unlawfully taking $45,957 of her mother’s money over a 20-month period from 2017 to 2019 and spending the money at restaurants, bars, coffee shops, salons and spas, the attorney general’s office said in a news release.
Bailey will serve two years probation following her release and is prohibited from serving as guardian or in a fiduciary capacity for any individual. She must also repay the misappropriated money to her mother’s estate, the news release said.
Bailey’s mother, Shirley Bailey, of Lebanon, died in 2021 at age 79.