A former police officer was given two suspended prison sentences after she used fake documents to collect more than $76,000 in government payments.

Loucetta Beckles, 68, used fraudulent marriage and death certificates to collect pension money on behalf of her late ex-husband, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

A tearful Beckles insisted that she kept the money only to deal with overwhelming expenses — such as a mortgage and her son’s education — after her ex-husband died.

She explained: “I had no help at all. It was a lot of money and I didn’t have any help.

“I panicked because the mortgage was due. I didn’t think he was going to die and I had a lot of equipment to bring back to Bermuda.”

Beckles admitted creating a fraudulent marriage certificate to deceive the Accountant-General’s Department between an unknown date and March 2021.

She also pleaded guilty to using the fraudulent document to deceive the Department of Social Insurance in June 2021.

The court heard earlier that an anonymous complaint was lodged with the financial crimes unit of the Bermuda Police Service in December 2022, claiming that Beckles was receiving widow’s benefits from the Bermuda Government using false documents.

Officers investigated multiple government departments and learnt that she formally separated from her husband, whom she married in 1995, in October 2017.

They also learnt that her ex-husband died in March 2021, after an accident in 2019 left him paralysed and with several health problems.

The court earlier heard that investigators found that following her ex-husband’s death, Beckles issued a marriage certificate to the Accountant-General’s Department and the Department of Social Insurance, which indicated that the two were married on January 16, 2021.

An investigation into the marriage certificate and a death certificate in the man’s name showed neither were genuine.

Police also learnt that the Accountant-General’s Department offered monthly payments of $1,714 while the Department of Social Insurance sent her $916 a month.

The payments totalled $47,018 and $28,164 between early 2021 and early 2023, and $76,183 overall.

During a sentencing hearing yesterday, Beckles told the court that, despite their separation, she travelled to Philadelphia with her ex-husband after his accident to care for him as he sought medical treatment.

The St George’s native added that they still “went home together” as “husband and wife” in spite of their separation.

Beckles said that although she had set the money aside for their son’s postgraduate degree, it was never used.

The court heard that Beckles was of “very low” risk of reoffending and had submitted paperwork twice instead of frequently.

A mental health assessment suggested she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from her ex-husband’s death but had not sought treatment.

Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe pointed out that there was no position of trust broken towards an individual and that there was no “identifiable victim”.

He added that Beckles did not use the money and that it was all later returned.

Mr Justice Wolffe recognised that, while it was not at her earliest availability, Beckles did deserve a 20 per cent reduction in her sentence for pleading guilty.

He told the court: “Any time monies are obtained by deception and through the use of fraudulent documentation should be treated as a serious offence.

“A fair message must be sent to individuals that deceptively obtaining money from the public purse is a serious offence and should be treated accordingly with a period of incarceration.

“But instead, the scale of the seriousness of this matter, I find that it is not as serious as those set out in previous authorities.”

Mr Justice Wolffe sentenced Beckles to 12 months’ imprisonment for each offence, both suspended for two years, to run concurrently.

He advised Beckles to use her time in the community to seek mental health assistance.

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