A Plymouth woman is charged with receiving Supplemental Security Income Benefit Program (SSI) benefits in a fraudulent manner.
According to court documents, Social Security Administration Special Agent Brett M. Yonkus from the Office of the Inspector General in Indianapolis alleges Hester Dills, 55, applied for SSI on Nov. 23, 2005 and revealed she was married and living with her husband and children. Yonkus stated in an Affidavit of Probable Cause that she was denied benefits at that time. She reportedly applied for benefits again on Dec. 6, 2011 and stated that she was not married in her application, but still residing at the same address on Washington Street in Plymouth, according to the report. She was granted benefits from 2011 to 2017 totaling $45,284.
In the same affidavit, Yonkus alleges that Dills was married in 1996 and the marriage was intact from 2011 to the present and her husband’s income in 2011 was sufficient to make her ineligible for benefits.
After finding that probable cause existed based on allegations in the Affidavit of Probable Cause, Marshall County Superior Court Judge Robert O. Bowen authorized an arrest warrant for Dills with a $1,500 cash bond. She was taken into custody and posted the bond.
Dills is charged with a count of welfare fraud as a Class C Felony and as a Level 6 Felony as the alleged incidents occurred under the old criminal code and the new criminal code. She is also charged with a count of theft as a Class D Felony and a Level 6 Felony.
Hester Dills is expected to make her initial appearance before Judge Bowen on Jan. 16, 2018.
