Two years in prison for a woman who received the orphan's pension of her deceased brother

The fourth section of the Court of Valencia has sentenced a woman who received the orphan's pension of her brother who had died for 24 years to 24 years in prison and without reporting the death to Social Security or the bank where they made the admission. The bank has been declared subsidiary civil liability for not verifying that the holder of the aid was alive.

The sentence considers it proven that the defendant, since before 1996, assumed the guardianship of her brother, who had an orphan's pension recognized by Social Security that, on that date, amounted to 675 euros and that in 2020 it was 726, which the administration entered him in a bank.

The brother died on May 1, 1996, the date from which the defendant hid that death from Social Security and the entity, so that, until March 2020, the monthly amounts of the pension continued to be paid into that account, with a total of 174,776 euros. The woman disposed of that money through cash withdrawals, card purchases and direct debit of receipts.

The court has considered it proven that the bank did not comply with its obligation to verify the survival of the pension annually, for which reason it did not notify Social Security of his death. It was the sister who on February 26 submitted a letter to this body in which she reported the death of her pensioner brother.

For this reason, the room imposes two years in prison for fraud, the payment of a fine of 844 euros and compensation to the Social Security of 135,805 euros with the subsidiary civil liability of the bank.