Pennsylvania Woman Forges Insurance Check, Could Get Prison Term

A suburban Philadelphia, Pa., woman who pleaded guilty to forging her stepson’s signature on a $150,000 insurance check has been sentenced to six to 23 months in prison.

Forty-eight-year-old Eleanor Leistrum of Bristol Township pleaded guilty in Bucks County in February to theft by unlawful taking.

Prosecutors allege that she spent most of the money at a Bensalem casino, but she told a judge on Monday that she used it to pay for home improvements with her stepson’s agreement.

The Bucks County Courier Times reports that Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Finley told Leistrum that he didn’t find her statements “entirely believable.”

Defense attorney Jeffrey Solar said his client had repaid the balance of the amount back to the victim.