Pennsylvania Supreme Court Tosses Social Security Fraud Convictions Over Time Limits

A woman who hid her grandmother's death to keep collecting Social Security benefits has had her fraud convictions overturned because prosecutors waited too long to charge her.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Tosses Social Security Fraud Convictions Over Time Limits

A defendant convicted of cheating the government out of Social Security payments won a major legal victory when Pennsylvania's highest court threw out her guilty verdicts, ruling that the case against her had grown stale. The decision was reported by Courthouse News Service.

The woman had kept her grandmother's death secret so she could keep cashing the deceased relative's benefit checks. Prosecutors in the commonwealth finally brought theft-by-deception and receiving-stolen-property charges against her in 2020.

However, the justices in Harrisburg concluded that the statute of limitations had already run out. The final government deposit landed in November 2010, and the commonwealth presented no proof that the accused still possessed those specific dollars during the legally allowed window for prosecution.

Because the charges were filed roughly a decade after the last payment, the court vacated the convictions entirely.

Source: Courthouse News Service