MANSFIELD – A Massachusetts woman is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from a Mansfield man, state police said.
Through an almost yearlong investigation, Connecticut State Police determined Lisa Perreault, 66, had charged a total of $78,207 to the man’s credit cards from 2021 to 2024, according to her arrest warrant affidavit.
Perreault, of Jamaica Plain, Mass., was taken into custody Monday and charged with two counts of first-degree larceny and one count of illegal use of a revoked payment card for less than $500.
State police first began investigating Perreault after receiving a report of elder financial abuse on Dec. 16, 2024. According to the warrant, family members discovered there was a substantial amount of debt on two of the older man’s credit cards. While looking through the statements, family members saw there were multiple Amazon purchases, charges to fabric stores and many charges of gas, and determined “a significant number of charges” were not made by the man and that the man does not have an Amazon account, the warrant states.
Perreault began living with the man and helping out around the house in January 2018, according to the warrant. The man explained to police that he had given Perreault a credit card so she could get groceries and other items to help around the house. Since this, family members discovered she had used that card along with another to spend thousands of dollars on items other than food, according to the warrant.
On one credit card, family members said Perreault purchased an “‘Ungodly amount of clothes and shoes’ on Amazon, paid for continued education for her nursing license, large purchases of fabric totaling approximately $10,000,” as well as a gym membership, auto and health insurance, items from two phone providers, vehicle maintenance and food from restaurants in both Boston and Connecticut, the warrant states.
Police spoke to Perreault as she was moving out her things from the man’s home on Dec. 20, 2024. She told police she had been “threatened by the family” and they had “been aggressive towards her.” Perreault said she “recognized this was not a living situation that she wanted to be involved in, so she decided to move her belongings out,” the warrant states.
When asked about using the man’s credit cards, Perreault said that was “acceptable to him,” according to the warrant.
“He wanted me to run, you know to take care of things for him,” she told police, according to the warrant. “He let me, you know, borrow things. But that was it and I didn’t do anything that he you know didn’t allow me to do.”
Perreault then told police she didn’t want to discuss the cards anymore because “she felt very scared,” the warrant states. Police seized her phone because they believed it contained evidence.
In Perreault’s phone, police found she documented and stored information from various credit and debit cards, according to the warrant.
Police spoke to the man again on Dec. 31, 2024, who said he started to notice the severity of Perreault’s spending when he visited a family member and saw that there was more money being withdrawn than deposited. He also realized about three to four years prior that the monthly charges were increasing, and he had told Perreault multiple times to stop spending so much money, according to the warrant.
The man said he never charged Perreault rent because she was very helpful around the house, the warrant states.
Police said the man was very surprised by the credit card statements because the card was with him most of the time. He didn’t understand how someone could attach a credit card to an online account, police wrote in the warrant.
Perreault is free on a $75,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned in state Superior Court in Rockville Nov. 18, according to judicial records.
If you suspect a person who is 60 years or older is being abused, neglected, exploited or abandoned, make a report to the Protective Services for the Elderly Program at 1-888-385-4225.
This article originally published at Massachusetts woman charged more than $78K to Mansfield man’s credit cards, police say.
