(Source: USAO, MA) BOSTON – Lucy Girard, 78, of Townsend, Mass., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston to stealing over $200,000 in Social Security and federal housing benefits.

In February 2016, Girard was charged in a felony information.  U.S. District Court Senior Judge Rya W. Zobel scheduled sentencing for June 1, 2016.

In 1994, Girard was listed as the informant of death on her mother’s death certificate when she passed away in Massachusetts.  Girard did not properly notify the Social Security Administration of her mother’s death so the agency continued to mail her monthly checks.  Although Girard was not entitled to this money, she routinely signed her late mother’s name on the back of the checks, cashed them, and spent the money.  In January 2009, the payments were converted to a monthly direct deposit into an account that Girard controlled, and she spent the money after it was deposited each month for her own personal benefit.  In 2014, in response to inquiries from Social Security, Girard falsely stated that her mother died very recently in Florida.  In total, from 1994 to 2014, Girard stole $208,868.

In 2014, Girard applied to live at housing subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  Although the application directed Girard to disclose all of her income, she did not disclose the Social Security money that she was illegally receiving on behalf of her late mother.  Girard would have been ineligible for subsidized housing if she had disclosed that income...