Article from Fox News by Fred Lucas.

After admitting to spending nearly a decade fraudulently cashing her dead mother’s Social Security checks, Pamela Thompson, 63, of Algiers, Louisiana, was sentenced in February to three years probation and restitution of $297,325 for theft of government services.

Death can be lucrative. Similar crimes may not be that difficult for fraudsters because of faulty government tracking of which beneficiaries are still alive. Audits have found federal agencies doling out millions in taxpayer dollars to dead people.

Referring to a case in his state, a lead co-sponsor of a bill to curb fraudulent payments, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said the near $300,000, “never should have been sent in the first place.”

“It’s pretty simple: Don’t pay dead people,” Kennedy said in a statement.

Read the entire article at Fox News.