ST. LOUIS • A woman who spent 14 years improperly collecting $168,223 in Social Security benefits in her dead grandmother's name, and then filed for her own benefits, was sentenced to five years of probation Wednesday and ordered to repay $295,505.

The grandmother of Rose Ann Witham, now 56, died in Indiana on Oct. 19, 1999. She was receiving Social Security Insurance benefits under her husband's Social Security number, so her death did not trigger a benefit cutoff. Witham and her husband withdrew the money until December 2013, her guilty plea says.

In 2010, Witham, of St. Francois County, applied for disability benefits and failed to report the money she was receiving in her grandmother's name, her plea says, resulting in an overpayment of $95,401.

Witham pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of theft of government property.

In court Wednesday, Witham apologized, saying “I am sorry for what I've done. There's no excuse.”

Assistant Federal Public Defender Felicia Jones said that Witham has benefited from the court supervision and the counseling that she has received, and was unlikely to engage in similar conduct.