Workers Comp

Woman sentenced after stealing dead mother’s comp benefits

Louise Esola

July 25, 2017 Reprints

Workers Comp Cost Control More + Less -

Woman sentenced after stealing dead mother’s comp benefits

A Kentucky woman who stole nearly $39,850 in workers compensation benefits meant for her dead mother, who was a former New York public educational services employee, was sentenced Monday, according to a statement by New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott.

Sheryl A. Colson, 47, of New Concord, Kentucky, was sentenced to five years of probation supervision and full restitution after serving more than six months in the county jail. She must also pay back the money she stole, per an agreement stemming from her guilty plea in May.

An investigation by Ms. Leahy Scott found that Ms. Colson’s mother, a former nurse at Orange-Ulster Board of Cooperative Educational Services in Goshen, New York, was injured on the job in 1997 and began receiving workers comp from the school, which is self-insured, according to a press statement.

Ms. Colson’s mother moved to Kentucky in 2007 and passed away in 2011. Ms. Colson, meanwhile, continued endorsing the weekly $400 checks for two years, depositing them into her mother’s bank account and using the account’s debit card to make purchases for more than two years after her mother passed away, according to a statement.

Colson’s purchases using her deceased mother’s benefits included payment of general household expenses and bills, restaurant tabs and products from an Indiana company specializing in the production of hand-blown glass pipes and other smoking devices.