Grandmother to be jailed in Social Security fraud case

March 29th, 2011 - 11:10 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt  

New York, Mar 29 (THAINDIAN NEWS) A 67-year-old grandmother who engaged in Social Security fraud is expected to be jailed on Friday.

Her lawyers are pleading that she should be given a home confinement for the offense but the prosecutors insist that Mary Alice Austin has broken the law and should be jailed as a punishment.

Alice would be appearing before the U.S. District Court in Detroit where she is expected to be sentenced after accepting a plea bargain. She would escape the maximum sentence and might spend just 10 months for the offense.

The prosecution told the court that Alice paid another person to pose as her son and for twenty years she received disability benefits from the Social Security. According to the court records, Alice managed to dupe the Social Security about $120,000 over the period. When she was busted, she claimed that she engaged in the fraud so that she would be able to take care of her grandchildren.

Social Security fraud in the United States has nearly crippled the program. Coupled with the aging baby boomers, the Social Security in the United States faces the gloomy prospect of collapsing.

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