Irene Prusik has been dead for six years. But in April, someone showed up at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Brooklyn, New York to renew her driver’s license.
The explanation given by US prosecutors: It was her son, in a dress.
Thomas Parkin, 49, was charged on Wednesday in the bizarre plot to impersonate his deceased mother so he could collect $US117,000 ($147,207) in government benefits. He and the man accused of being his accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo, pleaded not guilty to grand larceny, criminal impersonation and other charges.
Parkin, who lived with his mother, was accused of hatching the scheme after she died in 2003 at age 73. He managed to conceal the death by falsifying her death certificate, then collected $US52,000 from her $US700 a month benefit cheques over the next six years, prosecutors said.
Authorities say Parkin also got another $US65,000 in rent subsidies by falsely claiming he had a disability and that his mother was still alive and was his landlord.
Parkin sued the people who bought his mother’s home so he wouldn’t be evicted. They counter sued, things got messy and the cops finally got hold of a picture of Irene Prusik’s tombstone…. The devil, as they say, is in the details.
When Thomas showed up for what turned out to be the final interview with the police he was wearing a red cardigan, lipstick, manicured nails and breathing through an oxygen mask.
UPDATE:
In spite of showing up dressed like his mother Parkin now says that the person in the bank photograph is an impersonator.
