For nearly 50 years, Irene Ferrin collected her late mother’s widow’s benefits from Veterans Affairs — a theft totaling nearly half a million dollars, according to court documents.
On Thursday, a federal judge in Cincinnati sentenced 76-year-old Ferrin to one year of house arrest and five years of probation. U.S. District Judge Douglas Cole also ordered her to repay the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs $461,780. Prosecutors say she now lives in Cincinnati.