Moses Lake woman sentenced for welfare fraud
Local Crime News
EPHRATA - A Moses Lake woman was recently sentenced to community service for her role in welfare fraud after hiding her employment and lying about her living situation.
EPHRATA - A Moses Lake woman was recently sentenced to community service for her role in welfare fraud after hiding her employment and lying about her living situation.
Maria Calderon Barragan, 36, was sentenced to 160 hours of community service for defrauding the state Department of Social and Health Services of $1,925 in cash assistance and $1,297 in food assistance. She was initially sentenced to 20 days in jail, but her sentenced was converted to community service.
Barragan, a mother of four, began receiving food assistance from DSHS in 2009. She listed her job and husband on the application. She was denied cash assistance, but approved for help buying food. When she reapplied later in the year, she excluded her income from McDonald's and stated her husband was no longer living with her.
She continued to receive cash and food benefits from DSHS through 2011, and later told a caseworker in a face-to-face interview that she had been working and her husband, who was also working, moved back in the house a year prior.
DSHS Investigator Rick Brito said that his office takes cases like these serious and recently, "have been taking a big stand against fraud."
He said DSHS is a social service agency and is in the business of helping people who need and are authorized to receive it. Those who take advantage of the system will be found and prosecuted, he added.
Barragan is court-ordered to repay the $3,222 that she illegally obtained from the state, according to court documents.
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