A TULLIBODY woman who pretended her mother was still alive so her pension payments would continue for more than 20 years has been admonished.

Ruth Munro, 67, was told by a sheriff that just being prosecuted was “punishment enough” and she should have had better bereavement counselling.

Munro’s mother Margaret McPartlin died in September 1993, aged 73.

Last Thursday, Alloa Sheriff Court heard Mrs McPartlin was the beneficiary of two small widow’s pensions, resulting from her late husband’s employment with the British Steel Corporation and drinks giant Diaego.

Between 1993 and May 2015, by which time Mrs McPartlin would have been 94, Munro pretended to administrators of both pension schemes that her mother was still living.

Forms purportedly signed by her dead mother were returned and Munro allowed the pensions company to believe Mrs McPartlin was still alive.

“It makes me wonder that if you’d had more support through your bereavement, this would not have happened.”

Ruairidh Ferguson, prosecuting, said: “The offence involved the accused representing to the administrators of her late mother’s pension that her late mother was still alive and still receiving the pension even though her mother was dead in 1993.

“The amount received was £18,578 and that has been repaid in full to the pension companies involved.”

Munro pleaded guilty to defrauding the pension schemes out of £18,577 by inducing them to continue to make payments in the belief that Mrs McPartlin was still alive. Munro cares for her grown-up son, who is said to have “severe mental health difficulties”.

Defence solicitor Harry Couchlin told the court it had been “a bizarre and peculiar offence”.

He said: “These are sums she should never have received but she caused and allowed them to be received for reasons she can’t understand, and having started, she couldn’t get herself out of the situation.

“The unusual feature of the situation is that the money wasn’t spent, it was retained and it was returned.”

In sentencing, Sheriff David Mackie told Munro: “This is unusual. At the age of 67 you find yourself before the court for the first time, and I suspect the last, in your life.

“On the face of it, this is a serious matter because it involves a sum of money in excess of £18,000 but what is unusual is that every single penny has been repaid.

“In fact, you never touched the money because it sat in your late mother’s account throughout the time it was paid to you. It makes me wonder that if you’d had more support through your bereavement, this would not have happened. I don’t know.”

The sheriff added: “You present no risk whatsoever to the public. It’s enough that you’ve been put through the process of prosecution. I’ll draw a line under this matter today – you’re admonished.”