78-year-old woman ordered to repay 20 years of dead aunt’s pension in Spain’s Costa Blanca

A FRAUDSTER who took benefits belonging to her aunt who died in 1997 will have to pay it all back.

An Alicante court ruled that the 78-year-old woman has to cough up €133,556 that she took from the state up to 2016, plus legal costs.

The unnamed claimant escaped a prison sentence with a two-year term handed down to her, which under Spanish law she will not serve as it was her first offence.

Nevertheless, the court issued a stern warning that if she offended again over the next two years, she would be jailed.

Spain’s Social Security department was not told about the aunt’s death in 1997.

Instead, her niece used her relative’s bankbook to make regular withdrawals from ATMs belonging to the Caja Mediterraneo(later Banco Sabadell).