75-Year-Old Woman Pleads Innocent to Scam

[AP]

CHICAGO (AP) -- A 75-year-old woman who admitted using her
apparent frailty to scam a McHenry County car dealership has pleaded
innocent to charges that she sweet-talked an Elgin dealer into
letting her drive off with two new cars.
Betty Gooch of Algonquin appeared Wednesday in Cook County
Circuit Court in a wheelchair and pleaded innocent to two counts of
theft and three counts of deceptive practice.
Circuit Judge John Scotillo set Gooch's bail at $75,000 and
ordered her transferred to the Cook County Jail.
Gooch pleaded guilty last month in McHenry County Court to a
felony charge of deceptive practice and was sentenced to 18 months
in prison for writing a bad check to a car dealership in Crystal
Lake last year. She has been serving time at the Dwight Correctional
Center.
She told the court as part of a plea bargain that she wrote
the check for $22,095.28 to buy a Mazda SUV while her checking
account contained about $50.
On Nov. 3, while out on bond in the Crystal Lake case, Gooch
allegedly used her age to scam Elgin Toyota, prosecutors said.
According to authorities, she would typically negotiate a
deal, write a check and then ask the dealership to cash it several
days later so she could have time to transfer money from her
retirement account.
She drove away in brand new vehicles, while the car
dealerships were left holding bad checks, authorities said.
The dealerships eventually repossessed the cars, police
said.
Defense attorney Hal Stinespring said after the McHenry
County case that he didn't believe Gooch set out to steal from the
dealership and that she was sorry.