Woman Kept Dead Mom's Bank Account, Collected Pension Payments

MOUNT VERNON, NY — A Mount Vernon woman was given probation as a sentence as she began to pay back her dead mother's pension. Rochelle Rose kept her mother's monthly pension payments, using them to pay her utility bills, insurance and car loan.

In all over two years she kept $60,288 from the New York State and Local Retirement System.

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. announced Rose's sentencing to five years’ probation. She had pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the third degree in April.

Rose has paid $22,000 in restitution so far.

Rose, 41, stole the funds by keeping her deceased mother’s deposited pension checks and expended them for her personal use, including cellphone and utility bills, insurance and a car loan.

The Mount Vernon resident was prosecuted by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office
Investigations Division Economic Crimes Bureau. Rose’s scheme was exposed by DiNapoli’s office, which found that Rose kept her deceased mother’s bank account open to collect her mother’s pension payments.

"Thanks to my partnership with District Attorney Scarpino, Ms. Rose is being held responsible for her actions and is now required to pay full restitution of the $60,288 she stole from her deceased mother's pension," DiNapoli said in the announcement. "I thank the District Attorney and his team for their outstanding efforts on this case and in helping us root out those who deceive the retirement system."

Scarpino added, “We continue to work closely with the Office of NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to weed out those who would steal from the people of New York. Our Investigations Division Economic Crimes Bureau, in partnership with OSC investigators, continues to get to the heart of these crimes so we prosecute them to the fullest to get justice for all New Yorkers.”