All of you faithful readers know that one thing really sticks in my craw – people taking advantage of those they are entrusted to take care! This case really pisses me off.

In Madison, Tennessee a woman who ran a nonprofit that served some of Tennessee’s most disabled patients is facing charges she stole from her company and clients.

Deborah Aboyade-Cole, 56, former executive director of Life Action Tennessee, Inc., was arrested on a charge of theft over $60,000. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, she raided not only Life Action’s coffers from 2005 through 2007 before it went bankrupt, but also clients’ bank accounts.

Life Action Tennessee was founded in 1997 and helped provide housing and medical care for severely disabled patients. The agency averaged about 40 patients.

Stealing from the Poor – Shame, Shame, Shame!!!

As executive director, Aboyade-Cole took in $112,269 in compensation, according to 2005 tax documents.

Aboyade-Cole began stealing from Life Action and patients in January 2005, through ATM withdrawals, cash withdrawals and bank checks. IRS documents that year show that the organization had been on a 5-year slide with assets dropping from just over $2.4 million in 2002 to about $850,000 in 2005. Life Action shuttered in 2007.

The theft was uncovered by the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, which contracted with Life Action.

Aboyade-Cole likely had access to patient funds because patients signed waivers allowing Life Action to handle the money they receive from federal and state sources for their care.

The book should be thrown at Aboyade-Cole. After serving a lengthy jail sentence she should be given another chance. While in jail she should use her Internet time to take an online stop theft class.