A South Bend woman criminally misspent more than a half million dollars in government money but didn’t spend a dime on herself.

The federal fraud case against 56 year old Sharon Ramos is so unusual that court documents compare her to a “misguided Robin Hood.”

Even after today’s sentencing hearing the motive behind the crimes of Ramos remained murky.

She spent 15 years as a Social Security claims representative—the last six in the South Bend office where she apparently did financial favors for her clients left and right.

Prosecutors had argued that Ramos misspent more than $1.1 million—although the judge today sided with the defense estimate of $550.383.66.

“There's no evidence at all that she benefited from this in any material financial way. There was no evidence that she knew any of the social security claimants that got these increased benefits, no personal relationships of that nature,” defense attorney Michael Tuszynski told NewsCenter 16 after today’s sentencing.

Without the knowledge of clients, Ramos falsified things like income information and living arrangements so they would receive more money than they deserved.

When it was time for Ramos to address the court today she became too tearful to squeeze out more than a couple of barely coherent phrases, telling the judge “I await your sentence.”

“You know, I think my client didn't mean anyone harm. She truly thought she was helping people,” said attorney Tuszynski.

Statements made in court today indicate that Ramos once told investigators that the scheme gave her a sense of “empowerment.”

The defense blamed her bad behavior on various mental health issues and past head trauma Ramos suffered in several automobile accidents.

The judge sentenced Ramos to three years and 10 months behind bars to be followed by one year of supervised release.

Ramos will surrender to authorities in late April to begin serving her sentence.

It wasn’t immediately clear from today’s comments what will happen to the people who were overpaid. The information that was shared suggested that some will have to pay the money back in lump sums and that some would be underpaid for a period of time to compensate for the past overpayment.

Ramos was convicted of 13 counts after a trial in November of 2017.