Pa. Woman With 97 Cents Gets $328K Home

Pa. Woman With 97 Cents Gets $328K Home

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A woman pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges in what a prosecutor said was his first case in which a defendant stole an entire house.

Wendy Jean-Francois, 44, of Morrisville, pleaded guilty Monday in Bucks County Court to multiple counts of fraud, forgery and related charges.

Prosecutors said Jean-Francois sat down Oct. 5 at a settlement table at Rainbow Assurance, a mortgage title firm in Falls, with 97 cents in her bank account.

But she used two checks totaling $63,000 and a letter vouching for them, purportedly from a Wachovia Bank manager, and left with the keys to a $328,000 home, prosecutors said.

The checks turned out to be counterfeit and the letter forged, said David Zellis, first assistant district attorney. "This just boggles the mind," he said. Bucks County Judge Kenneth Biehn deferred Jean-Francois' sentencing for a mental health evaluation.