The Provincial Court of Murcia has sentenced a woman to return 104,056 euros for continuing to collect the widow’s pension of her mother, who died in 2007, for more than 12 years. The accused hid the death from both the National Social Security Institute (INSS) and the bank, and used the funds deposited monthly into the account in which she was authorized as a joint owner. The fraud continued until 2019, when a brother of the accused finally reported the death.
It all started in 2007, when the defendant’s mother died, a woman who had been receiving a widow’s pension from Social Security since 1981. Despite the death, her daughter did not inform the INSS of this fact, which caused her to continue collecting the pension at the same bank, this being CajaMar.
The bank account into which the pension was paid had two of the deceased’s children as authorized persons, including this woman, who for more than twelve years was using the money that continued to enter Social Security. In total, between October 2007 and October 2019, he collected 104,056.44 euros improperly.
The fraud remained silent until, in October 2019, another of the deceased’s children (brother of the accused and who appeared as co-owner) notified Social Security of the death of his mother. It was then that the irregular collection of the pension was uncovered, which led to the opening of an investigation and, later, a judicial procedure for a crime against Social Security.
At that time, the entity recovered part of the money directly from the bank (specifically, 36,115.54 euros corresponding to the last years of improper payments) and subsequently notified the daughter that she had to return the rest of the amounts improperly received.
The Social Security tried to claim the rest of the undue charges from the daughter, requesting the return of 67,940.90 euros corresponding to the period between October 2007 and November 2015. When the reimbursement was not obtained, the agency filed a complaint, understanding that the undue charge was not the result of an administrative error, but of deliberate concealment for profit, which fell within the criminal category of Social Security fraud.
Forced to return 67,940.90 euros plus fine
The Provincial Court of Murcia, after reviewing the facts and seeing that the accused recognized them, ordered that she should return 67,940.90 euros pending to Social Security, plus the obligation to pay a fine of 52,028.22 euros. In addition, you will not be able to request or receive aid, benefits or subsidies for four years.
In addition, the ruling also declares the subsidiary civil liability of the Cajamar banking entity, for not having verified the survival of the pension holder during all those years. According to the court, the financial institution, in its role as payer of public benefits, had the legal obligation to verify annually whether the beneficiary was still alive. The lack of controls allowed the fraud to go on for more than a decade without being detected. That is, if the convicted person does not return the 67,940.90 euros, Cajamar must do so.