A Souderton woman is facing more than 100 felony charges after she allegedly stole nearly $20,000 from an account belonging to her elderly relative.
Crystal Morgan, 34, of Souderton, has been charged with felony counts of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property, forgery, computer trespass, and 105 counts of access device fraud, following an investigation by the Souderton Borough Police Department. She’s currently free on $10,000 unsecured bail, court records show.
According to the criminal complaint, the investigation began in July 2022 when the victim’s power of attorney came forward to report that his 97-year-old relative was missing a large amount of money from her personal bank account. The man told police only himself and the victim’s niece were supposed to have access to the account, yet he documented 106 unauthorized transfers on the account between December 2020 and June 2022, police said.
Among the names included in the recipients of funds from the account was Morgan — who also goes by her maiden name of Crystal Sell — who was one of the victim’s relatives, police said. Morgan had a joint checking account with the victim because she could not open an account on her own, however she was never authorized to use any of the victim’s other accounts, according to charging documents.
Investigators allege Morgan created online access to the victim’s other checking account and changed the account settings to send all bank statements digitally to her email address. A review of the banking activity showed Morgan allegedly withdrew funds on numerous occasions and also used the account to pay cell phone and television bills, as well as more than a dozen purchases from Amazon, police said.
In an interview with police, the victim stated she had never authorized Morgan to have access to the account, she did not have an email address, and she had never used a computer or cell phone to do any online shopping or banking.
Charges were officially filed against Morgan on April 17, however the docket remained inactive until she was taken into custody and arraigned on Aug. 2. Souderton Borough Police Chief Brian Newhall stated that the victim died at the age of 98 in the days prior to Morgan being taken into custody.
Morgan has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Sept. 18 at 11:30 a.m. in front of Magisterial District Judge Albert Augustine.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using police reports, court records and the affidavit of probable cause.
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