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11 News has uncovered some troubling information about the people who are caring for our elderly.

In just five years, the number of convicted criminals applying for jobs as in-home caregivers in Texas tripled.

The state requires background checks, to keep criminals from actually being hired, but are those checks really working?

Allen Prince’s days are spent quietly, with his caregiver. Allen is 86. His in-home caregiver Craig is licensed and trained, and a private company ran a background check on him before he could work here. Craig is also Allen’s son.

“If you don’t do it right, don’t do it at all,” he said.

Having his son here is a comfort for Allen Prince. He knows he can trust him.

One 82-year-old woman had her trust, and a lot of money, stolen. She said just last month that her caregiver stole credit cards she’d never used — spending thousands of dollars. She’s still scared to talk about it and asked a friend to translate.

“How much? One thousand seven hundred dollars. Macy’s, Sears: $2,000 at Sears,” she said.

Her caregiver also stole her check card, sending her meager bank account deep into a negative balance.

“They are con artists a lot of them,” Senior Legal Center advocate Norma Bradley said. Bradley is an advocate for senior citizens. Follow her for five minutes and you’ll find out why.

“Because I’ve seen some nightmares for the seniors,” she said.

She wants tighter restrictions on caregivers — starting with stronger background checks.

The state of Texas requires that every person who wants to be an in-home caregiver pass a background check, run by the Department of Public Safety.

But here’s the problem: Those background checks only catch crimes committed in the state of Texas.

“So if someone commits a crime outside of Texas, it’s not reported on that,” Care for Elders spokeswoman Dianne Long said.

Long is trying to get lawmakers to pledge more money to run better background checks. But so far no luck.

A DPS background check, required by law now, costs about $3 but ignores any crime committed in another state. A regional check covering five states would cost about $25. And a national check would run anywhere from $35 to $100.

In the low-and-no-profit world of in-home health care, that’s money the government just hasn’t agreed to spend.

“He lost it all,” Richard Garcia said. “He was giving it to her.”

Garcia always suspected the woman caring for his brother Alfred was a crook. But until the day he died -- he could never prove that she was the reason his money kept disappearing.

“Lose a lot of hundred dollars,” Garcia said. “I’d leave two or three hundred dollars, and two or three days it’d be gone, all of it.”

Was his caregiver a convicted criminal? Richard will never know. He didn’t even have her real name.

“They need to do more of a criminal background check to find out more about these caregivers,” Bradley said.

But in this industry, turnover is high and the pay is low.

“And it’s not the first time that things have been missing but unfortunately in my physical condition I need a lot of help,” one elderly woman said. “I need the help.”

And the need, for the most fragile of citizens, is great.