Jayne Keith, 64, Fortville, is charged with welfare fraud after spending over $60,000 of her dead sister’s benefit money.
HANCOCK COUNTY — A Fortville woman is accused of stealing thousands in social security disability benefits. The theft happened over a five-year period, a special agent for the Social Security Administration in Indianapolis said in a report.
Jayne Keith, 64, 400 block of E. New York Street, Fortville has been charged with a Level 5 felony count of theft and a Level 5 felony count of welfare fraud. She was arrested in late May and had an initial appearance in Hancock County Circuit Court May 27 where Judge Scott Sirk set a $5,000 cash bond.
Keith posted the bond and was released from jail Tuesday, May 31, court records show.
According to an official report from the SSA, Keith had a scheme to defraud the Social Security Disability Benefit Program when Keith’s sister Kelly Martin died several years ago. Officials noted Keith failed to notify the SSA of Kelly Martin’s death and continued to receive and spend Kelly Martin’s SSA disability benefits after her death from December 2015 through November 2020 totaling $69,056 in fraud loss.
In May, 2021 officials from the SSA received the Keith fraud allegation from the SSA Great Lakes Program Service Center located in Chicago, Illinois, the report said. In the referral it was stated a notice had been received from Huntington National Bank which stated 60 payments from December 2015 through November 2020 totaling $69,434 had been deposited into the account of Kelly Martin after her death and that $378 had been recovered and $69,056 remained outstanding.
The bank further stated Keith, 400 block of E. New York Street, Fortville, was the last withdrawer on the account.
The report stated officials received a verification of death from the Mississippi Department of Health stating Martin died November 25, 2015 in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi.
According to SSA records, Martin received her benefits via direct deposit at Huntington National Bank. Bank records showed SSA deposits continued to be made after Martin’s death until November 2020. A review of the these records indicates this account was opened October 19, 2011 by Keith, with Kelly Martin added on October 10, 2013. The majority of the deposits after November 25, 2015 are from Martin’s SSA benefits.
The report went on to state bank records showed Keith spent the money in the account immediately following the death of Martin and did not stop spending the benefits until they were terminated in November 2020. According to the report, Keith spent the funds on household bills, furniture, a Capital One credit card and transferred much of it to her own personal bank account.
Federal officials interviewed Keith at her home in Fortville in September 2021, the report stated. Keith told officials she knew why they were there and admitted to officials she took the money. She told officials, according to the report, she was not really sorry she spent the benefits because she tried to get SSA to stop sending the money, but they kept depositing funds into the account.
Keith told officials in the report she spent the benefits on her kids, furniture, bills and other household expenses.
Keith is slated to be back in court for a pretrial conference on July 5.
