News Break
A 49-year-old man impersonated his dead 77-year-old mother in paperwork — and sometimes in person — for six years, collecting more than $100,000 in her name, according to the Brooklyn district attorney.
The man sometimes dressed as his mother and, with an accomplice, collected more than $52,000 in Social Security benefits and another $65,000 in city rent subsidies, prosecutors said.
Thomas Parkin and a man accused of being his accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo, 47, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a sweeping 47-count grand jury indictment that includes charges of perjury, grand larceny, conspiracy, forgery and criminal impersonation, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes told reporters.
Their bail was set at $1 million each. If convicted, they could each face up to 25 years in prison.
“These defendants ran a multiyear campaign of fraud that was unparalleled in its scope and brazenness,” Hynes said.
Authorities allege Parkin impersonated his late mother, Irene Prusik, after her death in September 2003.
On April 29, surveillance video captured Parkin posing as his mother to renew her driver’s license at a state Department of Motor Vehicles office in Brooklyn, authorities said. Parkin was wearing a blonde wig, a red sweater, sunglasses and a scarf around the neck, authorities said.
Next to him was Rimolo, who was pretending to be her nephew, authorities said. [source]
