Man posed as female breast cancer patients to scam charities, Florida deputies say

A man posed as women undergoing cancer treatment to apply for financial assistance from charities in multiple states, Florida authorities said.

The head of a Tampa area nonprofit, The LYN Fund, first raised the alarm in April, Volusia County deputies said.

Her organization assists cancer patients who are undergoing treatment or are in recovery by helping cover their living expenses. Its website says it helps patients diagnosed with “women’s cancers.”

The woman told the Volusia Sheriff’s Office her organization received an application for assistance from someone listed as Sally Holmes, who the application said was being treated for breast cancer and had been out of work for a few months, according to an affidavit.

The nonprofit head said she reviewed the application and issued a check for $5,000 for rent money to the applicant’s landlord.

Then, she got an anonymous call that said the 69-year-old Deltona man to whom she sent the money wasn’t a landlord and was actually operating a fraud scheme, deputies said.

McClatchy News reached out to the man’s attorney and did not immediately receive a response June 3.

The woman did more research and learned the phone number listed for Sally Holmes wasn’t in service, the doctor’s number was incorrect and the address where she was supposedly renting was a vacant property, deputies said.

She realized Sally Holmes was not the person who submitted the application.

She reached out to other organizations and found out they had gotten similar applications under different names, all listing the same man as their landlord who the check should be sent to, deputies said.

“Yolanda Jekins” applied to the New Hampshire Breast Cancer Coalition when she couldn’t work enough hours to support herself with all her medical appointments, according to deputies. “Joshlynn Jackson” reached out to the Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition, the Wisconsin Ovarian Cancer Alliance and Sophia’s Fund in Massachusetts asking for help paying rent during cancer treatment, officials said.

The organizations also wrote checks to the man listed as the landlord, according to investigators.

“The organizations all pay living expenses for patients battling breast cancer, ovarian cancer and pediatric cancer,” Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said in a news release.

The man is accused of using the same fake doctors, phone numbers and names on multiple applications for women who either didn’t exist or weren’t the real applicants.

“I have seen a lot of morally reprehensible scams in my career, but this has to be one of the worst,” Chitwood said.

When detectives spoke with the accused man, he told them he didn’t own rental properties but he sometimes cashes checks on other people’s behalf as part of the business he operates out of his home, deputies said.

He was booked in Volusia County jail on May 29 charges of organized scheme to defraud and grand theft over $5,000 and under $10,000, records show.

Deltona is a 30-mile drive northeast from downtown Orlando.

This story was originally published June 3, 2024 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Man posed as female breast cancer patients to scam charities, Florida deputies say."