Brooklyn Man Who Dressed As Dead Mom To Collect SS Checks Sentenced For Fraud
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A Brooklyn man who dressed up like his dead mother in a bizarre real estate fraud has been sentenced to more than 13 years behind bars.
Thomas Parkin was convicted May 3 on charges including grand larceny and mortgage fraud and was sentenced Monday to 13 2/3 to 41 years in prison.
Parkin's mother died in 2003 and the Park Slope brownstone she owned was sold at a foreclosure auction.
In order to get the house back, Parkin pretended his mother was still alive and he and another man, 49-year-old Mhilton Rimolo, sued the new owners, prosecutors said.
To make it seem like his mother was still alive, Parkin doctored her death certificate and went to the Department of Motor Vehicles dressed in a blond wig and a dress so he could get a renewed license, according to prosecutors.
He and Rimolo also collected $44,000 in his mother's Social Security checks every month for six years, the District Attorney's office said.
Then in March 2009, officials said Parkin went to the DA to report that he and his mother were victims of real estate fraud.
When investigators went to the home to discuss the case, Parkin was again dressed up as his 77-year-old mother "wearing a red cardigan, lipstick, manicured nails and breathing through an oxygen tank," prosecutors said.
Rimolo pleaded guilty in September 2010 to grand larceny charges and was sentenced to three years in prison.
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