RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA – An Upland attorney was sentenced today to a year in federal prison for cashing Social Security checks intended for her grandmother who died in May 2000, according to federal officials.
Audrey Owens, 61, who until she retired in September was a deputy public defender for Riverside County, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips.
Owens illegally received more than $129,000 from payments, said federal authorities. She pleaded guilty on March 3 to two counts of theft of government property, admitting that she bilked the government for 12 years.
Prosecutors stated in a sentencing memo filed with the court that Owens “devised and executed a plan to illicitly obtain significant amounts of SSA benefits intended for her deceased grandmother.”
Adding, “Indeed, within just one week of her grandmother’s death, [Owens] sprang her plan into action by immediately removing her father’s name off of the [grandmother’s] Kansas City account and changing the address of record to her own address in Upland. This allowed her to continue to receive SSA benefits, undetected, for over 12 years, totaling over $129,000. She was only stopped when SSA began to suspect fraud – otherwise, the theft would have likely continued indefinitely and resulted in even greater losses.”
According to documents, Owens diverted Social Security checks intended for her deceased grandmother from May 2000 when she died until August 2012, federal authorities said.
Owens used the Social Security money to pay bills along with paying for her personal expenses, including contributions to the Riverside Employee Campaign fund, according to officials.
In a 2010 article in Riverside Lawyer published by the Riverside County Bar Association, Owens who was director-at-large stated that she is married to John Owens and the couple had three adult children.
John Owens told the publication, in part, that “My wife has managed to be a great wife and mom to our children and to serve my ministry Expanding Life, in a way I cannot describe. She is the cornerstone in our church…”