Thomas SheaPhoto: William Farrington
An ex-NYPD sergeant was sentenced to three months in prison Tuesday for stealing more than $600,000 in Social Security disability benefits.
Thomas Shea, 56, retired from the force in 1993 due to a shoulder injury and submitted a false claim for disability two years later while working as a commercial driver for three different companies from 1999 to 2014.
His claim was revised in 2015 after a finding it was “based on tainted evidence submitted by a discredited physician,” according to a statement by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
Shea’s lawyer, Joseph Murray, asked for a probationary sentence with no imprisonment telling Manhattan federal Judge Jed Rakoff, “To go in [to prison] and come out a convicted felon, where is he going to get a job? Tom Shea should be made to pay. Allow him to continue to work at it, where being in prison he’s stifled.”
Shea made full restitution of the $622,843 he ripped off, before sentencing.
“He only came forward after Social Security sent him a notice they were gong to redetermine his case. He came forward because he thought he had been caught,” US Attorney Sagar Ravi Ravi said in arguing for jail time.
Shea told Judge Rakoff, “Approximately 20 years ago I made the worst decision of my life. I knew I was committing fraud and not a day went by I wasn’t looking over my shoulder. I was looked up to and now I bow my head in shame.”
Answered Judge Rakoff, “Here’s the issue, you have the amount of money, over $600,000 — and the longevity —a couple of decades. As always with crimes of this nature it exposes an inconsistency even a hypocrisy of the person holding themselves to others as doing right.”
Ex-NYPD sergeant gets jail time for Social Security scam | New York Post
isn't it. I don't blame the defense lawyer for using that tactic if it'll work.
