A husband and wife victimized an elderly woman, as well as the wife’s mother, in order to fuel the couple’s addiction — now they’re serving prison time and must pay back thousands of dollars that were stolen.

Chad Lent, 41, and his wife, 39 year-old Andrea Lent, both previously pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a string of crimes they committed from September 2018 through the start of 2019.

Monday afternoon, Lent was sentenced in two separate cases to a total of 30 months in prison for his participation in the crimes. Andrea Lent was previously sentenced to four years in prison.

The crimes began when the couple moved in with Andrea Lent’s mother after the woman’s husband, Andrea Lent’s step-father, had passed away, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Ron Welch said during Andrea Lent’s plea hearing.

Lent and his wife lived in a trailer behind the mother’s house, and the couple’s three children lived in the main house with their grandmother.

Following their arrival, Andrea Lent’s mother caught her attempting to cash two checks that did not belong to her. Andrea Lent apologized for the mistake and promised to never do it again.

In June 2018, Andrea Lent’s mother moved to another part of Ohio and continued to let her daughter and the family live on the property while the mother paid the bills for the home, Welch said.

The woman received a call from her granddaughter one day stating that Lent and his wife had taken a television from the house.

The mother visited the home to find that many items from the property were missing, including a chainsaw, televisions, jewelry, a spotting scope, generators, refrigerators, drills, an Xbox belonging to the children and other items.

All of the items were pawned in order for Lent and his wife to obtain money for drugs, according to Welch.

“That’s a betrayal on an elderly victim that was trying to help you,” Litle said of Lent’s action against his mother-in-law.

After pawning those items, Lent and his wife began living in their car.

The second set of crimes the couple pleaded to, and were subsequently sentenced on, resulted from an elderly woman taking in Lent and his wife. That arrangement resulted in the couple forging checks to themselves as payment for housework, Welch said.

Unbeknownst to the elderly victim, Andrea Lent attempted to cash two checks from that woman and refused the second time.

“I do very much apologize to (the victims),” Lent said in court. “I know I really hurt them and I do apologize for that.”

Chad Lent previously pleaded guilty to:

• Attempted identity fraud with an elderly victim, a fourth-degree felony
• Telecommunications fraud, a fifth-degree felony
• Theft with an elderly victim, a fourth-degree felony
• Receiving stolen property, a fifth-degree felony
• Forgery by uttering, a fifth-degree felony

In addition to his 30-month sentence, Judge Kelly Cottrill also ordered Lent to pay $7,376 in restitution.

Cottrill noted that there are specifications tied to charges when the victims of crimes are elderly due to the vulnerability of those community members.

“These guys can’t recover this stuff,” Cottrill said to Lent. “They’re vulnerable and you stole from their vulnerability.”