Mobile woman receives probation for wrongfully receiving Social Security benefits: USDOJ

MOBILE, Ala. ( WKRG ) — A Mobile woman was sentenced last week after she lied about her living situation and unlawfully received Social Security for years, according to the United States Department of Justice.

According to a USDOJ news release, 64-year-old Cheryl Bradley was with her husband when he went to apply for Social Security benefits at the SSA office in Mobile. She told the clerk she and her husband were married and lived together since 1988.

However, Bradley told the agency in 2007 that she and her husband were separated when she originally applied for benefits, in which the agency approved her application.

She told the agency in 2012 that she and her husband had been separated since 1990.

“Those two representations were important because her living situation and her spouse’s earnings should have been but were not factored into whether she remained eligible for benefits or as much benefits,” the USDOJ release said. “The Social Security benefits paid to her over the years were from a needs-based program.”

The USDOJ release said Bradley’s husband made “substantial earnings” in 2021 and 2022, in which she benefitted since they were married and living together, making her ineligible for those benefits. She was eligible for lesser benefit amounts between 2007 and 2020.

Bradley was sentenced to five years of probation. The court ordered she pay the agency restitution of $88,626.94 and a special assessment of $100.

The Office of Inspector General for the Social Security Administration investigated this case.

“For over a decade, Cheryl Bradley falsely reported her marital status and living arrangements to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and fraudulently obtained over $88,000 in needs-based Supplemental Security Income benefits that she should not have gotten,” Special Agent in Charge SSA Office of the Inspector General, Atlanta Field Division, Rodregas W. Owens said. “This sentence holds her accountable for her criminal actions and I thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their assistance in prosecuting this case.”

U.S. Attorney Sean P. Costello of the Southern District of Alabama announced Bradley’s sentencing, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex F. Lankford IV prosecuted the case.

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