A Court in Valencia has given a two-year prison sentence and a 135,805 euro fine to a woman who hid the death of her brother for 24 years to collect his pension
The defendant assumed the custody of her brother prior to 1996, the year of his death, who had an orphan’s pension recognised by Social Security that in that year amounted to the equivalent of 675.90 euros and that in 2020, due to the rise in pensions, came to 726.70 euros.
The sentence also includes a seven-month fine with a daily quota of four euros, the payment of the procedural costs, and the loss of the right to passive suffrage while the offender is incarcerated. An appeal may be filed against the Fourth Section’s sentence before the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community.
The pension was deposited from 1996 to 2012 in a bank account and between that year and 2020 in another, both from CaixaBank and whose sole owner was the defendant.
Her brother died on May 1, 1996, but she hid his death from Social Security “with the intention of illicit enrichment” and from the bank, thus ensuring that from May 1996 to March 2020 she continued to enter those accounts with improper monthly amounts of the brother’s pension.
The convicted woman had the income from the pension through cash refunds, payment of purchases by card and direct debit of receipts.
On February 26, 2020, the defendant informed the INSS of the death of the pensioner -which occurred on May 1, 1996-, which led to the cessation of the pension payment in March 2020, and facilitated the appropriate steps to clarify the facts which lead to the womans arrest.
