Mother, son sentenced in Social Security fraud

BANGOR – A Hancock County mother and son were sentenced to prison Thursday for defrauding the Social Security Administration out of more than $60,000 in disability benefits.

Ruth Hammond DeBeck, 55, was sentenced to two years, six months in prison and fined $20,000. Her son, Stephen DeBeck, 32, was sentenced to three years in prison. Restitution of $61,375 has been paid.

The sentencing took place at U.S. District Court in Bangor. U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal presided.

The pair, last winter, pleaded guilty to one count each of concealment of fact material (information) related to Social Security benefits and to one count each of making a false statement regarding Social Security benefits. They each received concurrent sentences.

Ruth DeBeck owns the Franklin Sand & Gravel Co., a family business. According to a court affidavit she and two other employees gathered all records relating to her son’s employment in a box and a third employee burned the box at the company gravel pit in September 1997. The action occurred after Social Security staff, acting on a tip, formally requested employment verification on Stephen DeBeck, who had been collecting Social Security disability benefits since 1991.

Stephen DeBeck’s minor son also had been collecting dependent benefits since August 1991 when his father’s application for disability had been approved.

In March 1991, Stephen DeBeck was involved in an accident that left him with a diagnosis of chronic brain injury. The injury led to a series of events culminating in his collecting the disability payments. In reality, Stephen DeBeck had been continuously employed at his mother’s company since July 1991, according to court papers.

An investigation revealed that Ruth DeBeck had ordered office employees to pay her son in cash so corporate payroll records would not reflect his employment.

Also sentenced Thursday in a separate matter was Jeremy Howe, 28, of Bangor. Arrested following an Odlin Road standoff last September, Howe was sentenced to 18 months in prison after earlier pleading guilty to the illegal possession of an unregistered, short-barreled shotgun.

Howe remains released on bond and was ordered to report to prison on May 15.