Bensalem Caregiver Who Faked Cancer To Delay Court Gets Jail Time
by Alex Lloyd Gross
Cancer sucks. Just about anyone knows someone who’s life was affected by someone that had the disease. People will accommodate those with cancer and give those people special considerations. That is exactly what Shannon Lynn Eberhart, of Bensalem, hoped for when she told people in the court system that she had cancer.
Eberhart was in the system for her theft case in Newtown. She worked as a caregiver but was stealing jewelry and cash from her patients. Precious heirlooms that can never be replaced were lifted from the homes that she entered to take care of her clients. She also made unauthorized withdrawals from one of her clients bank accounts. She got arrested by Newtown Police.
To delay her court proceedings, Eberhardt manufactured a fraudulent document from a Montgomery County Hospital that said she had cancer. A month before a scheduled court hearing in December 2023, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office received a medical document from Eberhart’s public defender, who had received it from Eberhart to support her continuance request.
This was investigated and it was determined she made a letterhead with a hospital name out of whole cloth. During the investigation, representatives of the hospital also confirmed that the letter was fake and contained several inaccuracies, including the official name of the hospital and its logo. The two doctors named in the letter also never worked at their hospital.
She also told people that her mother passed away to gain sympathy. That was untrue as her mother was in court for her sentencing.
Common Pleas Judge Gary B. Gilman sentenced Eberhart to one year minus a day to two years minus a day in the Bucks County Correctional Facility, followed by a consecutive sentence of 11 years of probation. He called her actions “despicable and unfathomable,” and an unending betrayal to those who trusted her. “You are nothing but a con artist who deceived the people who cared for you,” he said. “You betrayed every cancer patient, you betrayed the court system, you betrayed your attorney,” said Gilman, who questioned whether Eberhart’s courtroom tears were real, or just another of her deceptions.
Eberhardt entered a plea of guilty to the charges of unlawful use of a computer and two counts of identity theft related to the submission of fraudulent documentation. In March, she pleaded guilty to two counts of financial exploitation of an older adult or care dependent person, theft by unlawful taking, and receiving stolen property, and one count of identity theft and access device fraud.