PITTSFIELD — A city woman has been accused of stealing nearly $90,000 from a 90-year-old Dalton man with failing memory for whom she was acting a a caregiver.

Jeanne S. Chaplin, 51, allegedly overcharged the man for her services, and also had him routinely withdraw large sums of money from his bank, which she then deposited into her own account.

Dalton Police were contacted in October 2016 when the man's family reported a large amount of money was missing from his account.

"Chaplin took advantage of (the victim) by taking $900 in cash per week as compensation from him. This far exceeds the amount she was being paid to do this job when she was employed by a legitimate agency," according to a probable cause report in the case. "She then brought him to the bank three to five times a week and he made cash withdrawals.

"This cash has not been found in (his) home and seeing that he does not drive himself anywhere it is unlikely that he was spending the money himself," the report said. "After viewing (his) bank statements, his trips to the bank and cash withdrawals all but stopped after (Chaplin) no longer worked for him."

An investigation showed a large amount of cash withdrawals between June 2015 and October 2016.

Chaplin told police she was privately employed by the man in June 2014 and was being paid in cash.

She said she was first paid $550 per week, but that amount was increased to $900 per week after the man's daughter told him that she hoped he was paying Chaplin what she was worth.

The man's daughter denied ever having that conversation.

She said she worked about 20 to 25 hours a week. When police expressed surprise at the amount she was being paid, Chaplin said she had previously been paid $20 per hour when employed by a local home health care company.

A check of her employment records showed she actually was paid $11 per hour in that job.

Chaplin also told police some of the money was withdrawn to pay the man's monthly expenses, but the investigation showed the man typically used his credit card used to make those types of payments.

During a police interview on Oct. 23, the man said he couldn't remember Chaplin's last name, nor how long she'd worked for him, how many days a week she came to the house and other details.

Further investigation showed that on 46 occasions, Chaplin made cash deposits into her own account the same day there were cash withdrawals from the man's account.

Some of those transactions were in equal amounts; for example on Jan. 28, 2016, $300 was withdrawn from the man's account at 10:19 a.m.; at 10:21 a.m., a $300 deposit was made into Chaplin's account. In other cases, the deposit amount would be lower than the withdrawal amount.

Thirty-eight of those transactions occurred within 8 minutes or less of each other.

In December 2015, Chaplin was advised to start taking payment by check for her services with a notation in the memo for "personal care attendant." The man was advised to not make any large withdrawals from the account. Chaplin continued to take payment in cash, according to police.

After Chaplin stopped working for the man, police said, he made only two bank withdrawals in October for a total of $400. That money was for a vacation with his daughter.

In November, there were no withdrawals and in December there was a total of $320 withdrawn for Christmas gifts.

Chaplin remains free on personal recognizance after pleading not guilty last month to one count of larceny over $250 from a person over 60 or disabled.

She had a pretrial hearing on Thursday and was ordered to return to Central Berkshire District Court on July 19.

Reach staff writer Bob Dunn at 413-496-6249 or @BobDunn413 on Twitter.