LANCASTER COUNTY – A Lancaster County man charged with defrauding two elderly Ephrata residents of tens of thousands of dollars by making illicit transactions while he was entrusted with managing their finances will have his case proceed to county court. 67-year-old Howard Smith, Jr. of Clay Township waived a preliminary hearing before a judge on one count each of financial exploitation of an older adult and accessing an unauthorized device. Smith is accused of using the victims’ joint bank account and debit cards to steal over $27,000 from them through unauthorized transactions between April and December 2024. Smith was managing the victims’ finances at the time. One of the victims, a 76-year-old man, was living in a nursing home at the time while the other, his 85-year-old wife, suffered from early onset dementia. The victims’ daughter reported Smith’s alleged activity to police in December 2024 after noticing a large amount of suspicious transactions on their bank account. Smith is currently free on $25,000 bail.
