KYOTO (TR) – Kyoto Prefectural Police have re-arrested a 49-year-old unemployed man, previously indicted for abandoning his deceased mother’s body, on suspicion of defrauding the government out of her pension payments, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Aug. 12).
The suspect, a resident of Kyoto City’s Nishikyo Ward, is accused of failing to report his mother’s death in order to illegally collect approximately 11.5 million yen in basic pension and other benefits, Nishikyo Police Station said on the 12th.
According to investigators, the man’s mother died around January 2021 at the age of 72. Instead of submitting a death certificate, the suspect allegedly continued to receive 31 unauthorized payments starting in April 2021.
Upon his re-arrest, the man admitted to the fraud charges, telling police, “There is no doubt I used my mother’s pension to cover my living expenses.”
The man had been living alone with his mother. The grim scheme unravelled in June of this year when a relative, concerned about the elderly woman’s welfare, contacted authorities and requested a wellness check.
Police officers visited the residence and discovered her decomposing remains inside the home. The man was initially arrested and subsequently indicted on a charge of corpse abandonment before investigators uncovered the financial motive.
