New York Man Convicted of Dressing Like Dead Mom to Cash Her Social Security Checks

It was the mother of all scams.

A Norman Bates fan from Brooklyn who dressed up as his dead mom and collected her Social Security checks for six years was convicted of larceny Thursday.

Thomas Prusik Parkin, who's been jailed for nearly three years since his arrest, had declined a plea deal that would have freed him. He can now be sentenced to up to 83 years in prison for 11 guilty counts, including larceny and falsifying records.

"He said he wasn't guilty," his lawyer Morris Shamuil said in Brooklyn Supreme Court. "Mr. Parkin is very hurt and very upset by the verdict."

Jurors, who appeared amused at points during the trial, took less than a day to convict Prusik Parkin. They placed a smiley face on the note announcing their verdict.

In interviews, Prusik Parkin, 52, described himself as a fan of Norman Bates, who pulled a mom-impersonation ploy in the classic flick "Psycho."

The panel was shown a video of the defendant, wearing a blond wig, red dress and oversized shades during a 2009 visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles in which "mother" renewed her driving license.

"That could have been anyone," his lawyer argued in closing arguments.

But other evidence sank Prusik Parkin, whose mother Irene Prusik died in 2003 at age 73. He was brazenly engaged in a housing dispute involving ownership of his mom’s $2.2 million Park Slope brownstone.

In the legal battle over the house that reached all the way to the appellate court, he swore multiple times that his mother was still alive.

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