A Ferndale woman who allegedly dressed up as her dead mother to fraudulently collect pension benefits pleaded guilty to theft and forgery Thursday, Jan. 12, in Whatcom County Superior Court.
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Loewen B. Craft, 60, could face up to four years in prison for first-degree theft, first-degree identity theft and six counts of forgery. She also could have to pay $362,000 or more in restitution for fraudulently receiving the pension benefits and government services.
Craft was arrested at a bank in Ferndale on March 2, 2011, while allegedly masquerading as her mother, Betty Becker, who died in 2007
According to court documents, Craft admitted her mother into St. Joseph hospital a few days before her death. She provided a different name and date of birth for her mother so she could continue to collect her Social Security and pension checks, according to court documents.
After Becker died, Craft obtained a false identity for her mother and used that to cash Becker’s pension checks from Chevron, which netted her $145,000, according to court documents.
She told the Social Security Administration that it was her aunt, not her mother, who had died, so she could collect her mother’s Social Security, but she was unable to convince the agency.
At the same time that she was collecting more than $3,000 a month from her mother’s pension, Craft claimed she did not have any income, in order to receive services and benefits from the state Department of Social and Health Services and from the Social Security Administration. The department estimates it lost $217,000 through Becker’s scheme, while SSA has tallied its loss at $30,000, according to charging documents.
Craft’s sentencing will take place later.
