A woman accused of bilking about a dozen Mainers, most of them elderly, out of tens of thousands of dollars has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay restitution to her victims.
Tanya Boutelle was sentenced Thursday by Justice William R. Stokes in Androscoggin Superior Court to nine years in prison for theft by deception, with all but five years suspended and three years of probation on release.
She was also ordered to pay $132,000 in restitution to her victims.
Boutelle was also sentenced to two years in jail, all suspended, plus two years of probation for theft by deception of benefits from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution to the department. That probation will run consecutive to the probation on the first count, extending her probation to five years.
Finally, on a count of theft by unauthorized taking for stealing a coin collection, Boutelle was ordered to pay restitution of $8,500.
Boutelle, who has been jailed since April, was accused of establishing relationships with the victims, then creating scenarios for borrowing money that she wouldn’t pay back.
When she was indicted in September, DHHS officials said she represented was a classic case of financial exploitation of elders and used the case to warn older Mainers of the dangers of schemes aimed at defrauding them.
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