Dakota Simmonds, 21, of Towamencin.
A Towamencin man has been charged with stealing more than $15,000 from his deceased father’s estate.
According to the criminal complaint, police were contacted on Nov. 8, 2018, by a widow who reported that there was fraudulent activity from PayPal transactions on her deceased husband’s bank account. The woman stated that she did not have a PayPal account, and she was unfamiliar with the account information as her husband normally handled the finances, the report states.
The woman provided police with information from PayPal and her husband’s credit union, which showed that between Feb. 5, 2018, and Nov. 6, 2018, several withdrawals had been made from the account, totaling $14,349.55, according to the complaint.
The woman also told police that she believed the person making the withdrawals was her son, identified as 21-year-old Dakota Simmonds, of Towamencin, police said.
Investigators spoke with the credit union, and learned that all of the transactions had been made through a PayPal account bearing the email addresses of the deceased. Purchases included Grubhub, Starbucks, video game services and publishers, online shopping, background checks and personal withdrawals, the report states.
On Nov. 30, 2018, Simmonds went to the Lansdale Police Station to speak with investigators, and allegedly said that he was desperate and estranged from his family, according to the report. Simmonds told investigators that he attached two of his father’s email addresses and a personal email address to a PayPal account that was linked to his father’s bank account, but denied spending in excess of $14,000, according to the report.
The subsequent investigation of the PayPal records showed that a total of 668 payments were made over the nine month period, totaling $15,049.87 and including payments to Simmonds’ personal checking account, police said.
As a result, Simmonds has been charged with felony counts of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property, access device fraud and identity theft. Simmonds was arraigned on July 17, 2019, by Magisterial District judge Ed Levine, who set bail at $5,000 unsecured. He was then released, according to court records.
His next scheduled court appearance is a preliminary hearing on Aug. 5 at 3 p.m. in front of Judge Levine.
(Editor's note: All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records, the affidavit of probable cause, and reflects the point of view of the investigators. Should the defendant choose to issue a public statement, or is later found not guilty or has the charges dropped, we will update this article accordingly.)
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