Man sentenced for stealing dead neighbor's VA benefits

BOSTON — A Lynn man has been sentenced to a year of probation for stealing nearly $80,000 in federal veterans' benefits that were erroneously sent to his dead neighbor.

Prosecutors say 73-year-old John Ladd was sentenced Tuesday to spend the first six months of the probationary period in home confinement and was ordered to pay full restitution to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He pleaded guilty in August to stealing public money.
Prosecutors say Ladd was a caretaker for the woman who died in 2009. But the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was not properly notified of the death and continued to deposit her benefits into her bank account each month.

Ladd wrote 70 checks to himself from the neighbor's account, forging her signature, and deposited them into his own account.