The Supreme Court has condemned a granddaughter who spent six years collecting the widow’s pension of her grandmother, who died in 1988, with which she collected a total amount of 61,834.46 euros. Although the Provincial Court of Oviedo and the Superior Court of Justice of Asturias acquitted her, the High Court understands that keeping quiet about the death of a family member in order to continue collecting the pension is a deception, despite the fact that neither Social Security nor the bank carried out any control.
As the ruling explains (and which can be read in the Judiciary), the grandmother died in December 1988, but the widow’s pension continued to be paid each month into the bank account of the BBVA entity, of which her daughter was also the holder. When she died, in August 2013, the granddaughter began withdrawing money from the bank account and continued until December 2019. During all that time she made refunds, direct debited receipts and made transfers, knowing that the only money that entered that account was her deceased grandmother’s widow’s pension.
In this way, she received a total of 61,834.46 euros from her widow’s pension during those six years, of which the bank returned 39,176.22 euros, those of the last four years. Social Security and the bank accused her of fraud and the case went to court.
At first, the Provincial Court of Oviedo acquitted her in March 2023, because neither Social Security nor BBVA ever checked whether the pensioner was still alive (a procedure that can be done with proof of life). The Superior Court of Justice of Asturias confirmed this acquittal and, since Social Security was not satisfied, it decided to go to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court convicted her based on article 307 ter of the Penal Code, which, since the reform carried out in 2012, considers and punishes as fraud the “conscious concealment of facts that it had the duty to report” when a benefit is collected as a result.
That is, the person who knows that the beneficiary of a benefit has died and does not inform in order to continue having money that does not belong to him. According to the Penal Code, the penalties in these cases range from six months to three years in prison and rise to between two and six years if the amount collected exceeds 50,000 euros, although the article itself leaves anyone who returns the money unpunished, with interest, of course, before an inspection is opened or they are reported.
Keeping quiet about the grandmother’s death is already deception
The Court and the TSJ understood that there was not sufficient deception, since it was Social Security and the bank that did not monitor for more than 30 years. The Supreme Court responds that this lack of control does not change that the money was not theirs, since “the improper nature of receiving the pension results from the logic of things,” and remembers that the heirs of a pensioner who dies have to communicate it and “will refrain from collecting said pension” from that moment on.
In this way, the Supreme Court has sentenced her to two years in prison, the lowest penalty for this crime when the amount collected exceeds 50,000 euros, and three years without being able to receive aid or tax or Social Security benefits, in addition to paying the costs (expenses) of the first instance.
Regarding money, the Supreme Court explains that it must return what was collected less what the bank already paid, “specifically the amount that results from subtracting 39,176 euros from 61,834 euros.” The ruling sets that amount at 29,658 euros, although the subtraction gives 22,658, and the ruling leaves Social Security open civil proceedings (a separate trial) to claim what corresponds.
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This situation has already occurred in Andalusia, where the Superior Court of Justice confirmed two years in prison for another granddaughter who collected her grandmother’s retirement and widow’s pension for more than 22 years, whom it also sentenced to compensate Social Security with 113,128.50 euros and to pay a fine of 147,928.09 euros.