A 60-year-old London woman is facing fraud and theft-related charges after allegedly collecting more than a quarter of a million dollars from her parents' pension plans for years after they had died.
Members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) London Financial Crime Unit laid the charges after following up on a complaint from officials with Employment and Social Development Canada / Service Canada and the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan.
The Mounties said the investigation started in October 2017 and showed that the accused had been collecting benefit payments from Old Age Security (OAS), Canada Pension Plan (CPP), and a teacher's pension plan for more than eight years after her father passed away.
Police said the pension payments continued after the accused's parents passed away in 1993 and 2006, adding that the woman allegedly accessed the funds through a joint bank account -- collecting $179,000 from OAS / CPP from 2006-2014 and more than $135,000 from the teacher's pension plan from 2006-2018.
As a result of the investigation, 60-year-old Gladys O'Brien of London is charged with three counts of fraud over $5,000, two counts of theft over $5,000, and possession of the proceeds of crime.
She is set to appear in court at the end of February to answer to the charges.
