PORTLAND — A Brunswick woman is heading to jail after being convicted of stealing nearly $60,000 worth of food stamps and child-care reimbursement benefits.
Sarah Fairbanks, 40, of 467 Durham Road, was sentenced Monday in Cumberland County Superior Court to five years in prison with all but 13 months suspended, and three years of probation. She will also have to repay the amount she stole.
A jury convicted Fairbanks on Nov. 30 of one count of Class B theft and two counts of unsworn falsification for providing incorrect information to the Department of Health and Human Services in order to obtain welfare benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Child Care Development Fund Voucher Program.
According to a press release from Attorney General William Schneider, Fairbanks told DHHS that she was separated from her husband and living alone with her children. But in reality, she received support from and lived with her husband.
The theft occurred over the course of five years between January 2005 and May 2010.
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