Romualdo passed away on May 1, 1996. He received an orphan's pension of 675.90 euros per month. Her sister, Andrea, a neighbor of Gandia and born in 1940, hid from Social Security and the Caixabank bank that her brother had died. And he was able to maintain the scam until March 2020, when the amount he collected each month amounted to 726.70 euros. The total amount improperly entered by Social Security in the defendant's accounts amounted to 174,776.17 euros.
A sentence of the 4th section of the Provincial Court of Valencia has sentenced her to 2 years in prison, as the author of a crime of fraud, and to compensate the National Institute of Social Security with the amount of 135,805.97 euros more interests. The sentence appreciates also declares the subsidiary civil liability of the bank.
The magistrates consider it proven that the defendant had the pension of her deceased brother through cash refunds, payment of purchases by card and direct debit of receipts. Social Security, through the corresponding retrocession procedure, obtained a refund of 38,970 euros from the bank.
According to the ruling, the bank did not comply with its obligation to verify the survival of the pension holder annually, and therefore did not notify Social Security of his death.
The defendant, on February 26, 2020, filed a document with the Provincial Directorate of the INSS, reporting the death of her pensioner brother, which occurred on May 1, 1996, a circumstance that determined the cessation of payment of the pension in the month of March 2020, and facilitated the appropriate steps to clarify the facts.
