Virginia Man Sentenced for Cashing Deceased Mother's Social Security Checks

An Evington man was sentenced to 10 months’ home confinement Friday for cashing his Mother’’s Social Security checks for nearly seven years after her death. Darrell Anthony Perdue, 29, accepted $85,850 in benefits following his Mother’’s 2003 death and used it to pay living expenses and buy a truck until he was discovered in July 2010, court records show. Perdue is unemployed and rarely leaves the home he shares with his brother, Donald, 49, due to paralyzing social anxiety, according to a sentencing memo filed by his attorney, Randy Cargill. The Social Security money supplemented the roughly $1,100 in monthly wages Donald earns from a job at McDonald’s. “It was desperation at the beginning, all the way to the end,” Perdue said Friday in U.S. District Court in Lynchburg. “I didn’t know what else to do.” Perdue expected the checks to stop after his mother died, but when they kept coming, he kept cashing them. He was relieved when he was caught because he could finally admit his misconduct, Cargill wrote in the sentencing memo. While home confinement would be little change for Perdue, a veritable recluse, the requirements of his sentence could afford him an opportunity to get the counseling he needs, Cargill wrote. Perdue was sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to pay the $85,850 back to the U.S. Social Security Administration. Article: http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2012/jan/13/evington-man-sentenced-social-security-check-cashi-ar-1610564/An Evington man was sentenced to 10 months’ home confinement Friday for cashing his Mother’’s Social Security checks for nearly seven years after her death. Darrell Anthony Perdue, 29, accepted $85,850 in benefits following his Mother’’s 2003 death and used it to pay living expenses and buy a truck until he was discovered in July 2010, court records show. Perdue is unemployed and rarely leaves the home he shares with his brother, Donald, 49, due to paralyzing social anxiety, according to a sentencing memo filed by his attorney, Randy Cargill. The Social Security money supplemented the roughly $1,100 in monthly wages Donald earns from a job at McDonald’s. “It was desperation at the beginning, all the way to the end,” Perdue said Friday in U.S. District Court in Lynchburg. “I didn’t know what else to do.” Perdue expected the checks to stop after his mother died, but when they kept coming, he kept cashing them. He was relieved when he was caught because he could finally admit his misconduct, Cargill wrote in the sentencing memo. While home confinement would be little change for Perdue, a veritable recluse, the requirements of his sentence could afford him an opportunity to get the counseling he needs, Cargill wrote. Perdue was sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to pay the $85,850 back to the U.S. Social Security Administration. Article: http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2012/jan/13/evington-man-sentenced-social-security-check-cashi-ar-1610564/