Police: Home health aide swindled clients

A North Bellmore woman who worked as a home health care aide swindled clients out of more than $50,000, Nassau County police said Thursday.

Sherriza Alfano, 50, of 2888 Holiday Ct., faces charges of grand larceny, possession of a forged instrument and identity theft, police said. Alfano was held in the Nassau jail pending a $20,000 cash bail or bond after being arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Hempstead.

Alfano took four checks from two Franklin Square victims in her care, ages 83 and 84, made them out payable to cash and deposited them to her account between May 2 and 25, police said.

Three of the checks, totaling $36,000, were returned because of insufficient funds; another for $900 was successfully deposited, police said.

Then, on Aug. 6, she called one of her patients, identified herself as an Internal Revenue Service employee and told the 84-year-old Massapequa woman that she had won money, police said. The victim, believing the story, gave Alfano her banking information, and Alfano transferred more than $50,000 from the woman's bank account into her own to pay charges on her credit card, police said. The Crimes Against Property Squad arrested Alfano Wednesday at her home, police said.