A Pleasantville woman was indicted Friday for keeping more than $140,000 in pension benefits mistakenly paid to her dead mother.
Diana Heil, 48, is charged with theft by unlawful taking and second-degree misapplication of entrusted property or property of government, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said.
Heil’s mother had been collecting the survivor’s benefits from her deceased husband’s New Jersey Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund.
But when the older woman died in 2005, the monthly checks continued to automatically be deposited into an account Heil and the older woman shared, according to the charges.
The account was mostly inactive, and the money went unnoticed until the bank alerted Heil about the deposits.
Heil then told the state of her mother’s death, which resulted in an audit by the Division of Pensions and Benefits.
Heil acknowledged the money was not hers, and promised to return it, according to the charges. Instead, she made a series of large withdrawals and wire transfers from the account, adding up to about $140,873 in theft of state funds, the charges allege.
Second-degree crimes carry a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and a fine of as much as $150,000.
The case is assigned to Gloucester County, where Heil will be arraigned at a later date.
