A Clay Township man charged with defrauding two elderly Ephrata residents of tens of thousands of dollars by making illicit transactions while he was entrusted with managing their finances will have his case proceed to county court after waiving his preliminary hearing earlier this month.

Howard Stanley Smith, Jr., of the 400 block of Middle Creek Road, waived his preliminary hearing before Judge Torrey Landis on Feb. 11 on one count each of financial exploitation of an older adult and accessing an unauthorized device.

Smith, 67, is accused of using the victims’ joint bank account and debit cards to steal more than $27,000 from them through unauthorized transactions between April and December 2024. Smith was managing the victims’ finances at the time due to their advanced ages.

Bank statements showed multiple unusual payments, including transactions to Smith’s accounts at other banks, payment of Smith’s bills and purchases at restaurants, a car dealership, liquor stores and various hotels that the victims could not have made and would not have approved.

One of the victims, a 76-year-old man, was living in a nursing home at the time while the other, his 85-year-old wife, suffered from early onset dementia. Neither victim was able to communicate to police due to their advanced ages and levels of confusion.

The victims’ daughter reported Smith’s alleged activity to Ephrata Borough police in December 2024 after noticing a large amount of suspicious transactions on their bank account.

Smith is currently free on $25,000 unsecured bail.

Ephrata Borough Police Det. Beth Rivera filed the charges.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.