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BRIEF: 'Blind' Kansas veteran caught driving car must repay $70,000 for fraud

Kansas City Star - 9/7/2017

Sept. 07--A Kansas man who feigned blindness to collect government disability benefits was placed on probation Wednesday and ordered to repay $70,000.

Billy J. Alumbaugh, 62, of Turon, Kan., was sentenced in federal court where he pleaded in June to conspiracy to defraud the government.

His wife was previously placed on probation for helping him in his scheme.

Alumbaugh, a veteran of the U.S. Army, collected the veteran's benefits from 2009 to 2016 while he maintained a Kansas driver's license and regularly drove a car.

Last October, he was seen arriving at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wichita in a car with his wife driving, according to court documents.

When they left she was driving, but they stopped a few blocks away and switched places so he could drive.

Tony Rizzo: 816-234-4435, @trizzkc

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