Woman pleads guilty to taking dead mother’s Social Security money

An Idaho Falls woman pleaded guilty Thursday to theft of government funds after stealing $29,600 of her deceased mother’s monthly Social Security benefits.

After her mother’s death, Wendy K. Banks, 55, maintained a joint bank account she had shared with her mother. She forged her mother’s signature or wrote “for deposit” on the Social Security checks and deposited them in the joint account, eventually changing the checks to direct deposit in the joint account, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson said.

The incidents happened between June 2009 and January 2014.

Banks was indicted by a grand jury in November.

The charge of theft of government funds is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.

Banks will be sentenced in June.