From 1998 to 2006, Ronald Ellis received, as usual, his regular Social Security checks, which he used to pay debts, bills and other normal expenses.
But something was abnormal about his seemingly routine daily actions.
Ellis was dead.
His friend and neighbor, Penny Banks, 45, of Ellicott City, admitted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore City to using Ellis? identity to steal more than $82,000 in taxpayer money from the Social Security Administration.
Reached by telephone at her Ellicott City home, Banks declined to comment on the case.
Ellis and Banks lived in the same apartment complex and became friends, according to a plea agreement.
Banks collected Ellis? mail for him after he moved into a nursing home.
But when Ellis died on July 30, 1998, his monthly Social Security benefits continued to be directly deposited into his bank account.
When Banks discovered this, she began forgingEllis? signature and wrote checks from his bank account to pay her bills and expenses.
She also instructed her debtors to withdraw money from Ellis? bank account, prosecutors said.
Until she was caught in 2006, Banks spent $82,462 of Social Security benefits mistakenly deposited by the federal agency into Ellis? bank account, prosecutors said.
In pleading guilty to theft Wednesday, Banks admitted she was not entitled to the money, knew that the money did not belong to her, and intended to steal the funds from the government.
Banks faces a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.
She will be sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Benson Legg on April 20.
