The son of a former Atlanta school principal was sentenced this week after pleading guilty to collecting his father’s retirement pay after the elderly man died.
Eugene B. Wimby Jr. was sentenced to three years in prison after admitting to 14 felony counts of theft by taking.
Prosecutors said he stole $53,525.95 in payments the Teachers’ Retirement System of Georgia had sent to a checking account belonging to his late father, Eugene B. Wimby Sr., former principal of East Atlanta High School.
The elder Wimby died in September 2008. He had been receiving retirement paychecks since 1982 and had given his son control over the checking account used for the direct deposits in the last year of his life.
Prosecutors said the son did not inform TRS that his father had died, and he continued to transfer money from his father’s checking account to his personal and business accounts or make withdrawals between October 2008 and November 2009.
The retirement system found out about the overpayments after a mortality report revealed that Eugene B. Wimby Sr. was dead.
The judge in the case commuted Eugene B. Wimby Jr.’s three-year sentence to the 120 days he had already served and ordered the balance to be served on probation. Wimby also was ordered to pay $49,829.13 restitution to TRS, which prosecutors said he had done.
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