Lakewood Veteran Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Mileage Reimbursements

One of the four Lakewood veterans accused of falsifying mileage statements for government reimbursement has pleaded guilty in federal court.

Rebecca Dickson, 51, pleaded guilty to theft of government property and providing false statements to a government agency.

She faces 15 years in prison when she is sentenced on Jan. 29.

The cases for the other three Lakewood residents charged — Mark Sheline, 54; Scott Sheline, 56; and Raymond Williams, 54 — are still pending in federal court.

They were all among 16 veterans in Northeast Ohio indicted on charges that they inflated the returns for their travel reimbursement — representing a greater distance of travel they actually traveled to and from the Veterans Affairs Office.

Dickson and Williams were also charged with making false statement to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Steven M. Dettelbach, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said that the total amount of money taken by all 16 indicted was more than $250,000.

“Theft from the public coffers will not be tolerated, whether it is a contractor inflating construction costs or citizens submitting false mileage reimbursements,” Dettelbach said in a recent news release.