She preyed on the disabled

She called herself a caretaker, but she dropped the care some time ago.

Antoinette Colclough was just a taker.

From the 46-year-old man with a 45 IQ to a quadriplegic woman and an elderly woman suffering from dementia, Colclough stole their identities to buy thousands of dollars of lingerie, jewelry, computers and other posh items.

Yesterday she pleaded guilty in Delaware County court to numerous consolidated counts of access-device fraud, identity theft and theft by deception for crimes against three county residents.

A predator whose bait was trust, whose prey was the disabled, Colclough, 43, of Darby, lived the high life on the backs of those who couldn't.

Delaware County Deputy District Attorney Greg Hurchalla said he will seek a prison term for Colclough when she is sentenced June 19.

From March 2001 to April 2004, Colclough signed up for 13 credit cards and charged more than $14,500 in the name of Ronald Keattes, of Broomall, the man with the 45 IQ for whom she was hired to provide care.

Keattes told investigators that Colclough also had him sign up for two cell phones with the understanding that she would receive one and he the other.

Instead, when the two left the store, Colclough told Keattes that he didn't need a cell phone and that she was giving it to her son.

Keattes said Colclough had taken him to several stores and had him sign for a number of things he couldn't recall. What he did remember was asking if he'd get in trouble for signing.

"She told him that he wouldn't get in trouble, she would," the affidavit said.

In the end, they both did. Colclough with the law and Keattes with the creditors.

Joseph Brielman, public-information officer for the Delaware County D.A.'s office, said Colclough's guilty plea is a major step in rehabilitating Keattes' credit.

Although she was arrested in 2004 on charges stemming from Keattes' case, a background check by the Pennsylvania Agency of Nurses in 2005 came back clear because the charges were still "pending," according to previous Daily News' reports.

That allowed her to be hired as an aide in December 2005 by Anastasia Rigos, 49, of Upper Darby, a quadriplegic with multiple sclerosis.

In the six months Colclough "cared" for Rigos, she opened more than a half-dozen credit cards and racked up more than $13,400 in purchases.

She even used one of the cards for a down payment on a Dodge Durango - three days after Christmas.

When Rigos reported her suspicions about Colclough to police, detectives seized the Durango.

Inside were personal, legal documents belonging to an elderly Marple Township woman.

Colclough had only "cared for" the Marple Township woman, who suffers from dementia, for four days, but in that time she'd managed to steal numerous legal documents valued at more than $150, Hurchalla said.

David E. Desiderio, Colclough's attorney, said she has given reasons for her actions but he wasn't at liberty to elaborate, except to say she is "very remorseful." *