Jail, fine for woman who stole benefits
A Roanoke woman who admitted stealing more than $180,000 in government benefits will spend two years in prison and must repay the money.
Federal prosecutors say 36-year-old Melissa Ann Ferguson pleaded guilty in July to one count of theft of government monies and one count of making false statements related to healthcare matters.
She was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on Tuesday.
From February 2000 until August 2009, Ferguson accepted more than $20,000 in payments from the Social Security Administration and $160,000 in state Medicaid benefits that she should not have gotten because her live-in boyfriend was employed.
By
the Associated Press
| November 17, 2010; 7:28 AM ET
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From the Courthouse, Virginia
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