Fraud took money in dead mother’s name
A 58-year-old man said he collected his mother’s state disability checks for more than 11 years after she died because she wanted him to do so.
Steven L. Splater pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Wednesday to three counts of mail fraud. He faces maximum 20-year terms for each count at sentencing in June. He could also be ordered to pay back the state of Hawaii $223,925.
Steven Splater said he knew that the power of attorney his mother, Edith M. Splater, gave him expired when she died March 3, 2000, yet he continued to exercise it.
He admitted that on May 23, 2003, he sent the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations a form claiming that his mother was still alive. The government says Slater collected the disability checks until July 5, 2011, and deposited them into an account held in his mother’s name.
Hair salon blaze might be arson
Kauai County fire officials say a fire that broke out Wednesday morning at Supercuts at the Kauai Shopping Village in Kapaa may have been intentionally set.
Police are investigating the cause of the fire after being notified that firefighters found the salon’s back door ajar, and noticed damage to a safe in the office.
Fire and water damage to the salon and its contents is estimated at about $60,000.
Firefighters responded to a report of a fire at about 3:45 a.m., but the building’s sprinkler system had extinguished the blaze by the time they arrived.
The adjoining businesses, GNC and Tropical Dreams Ice Cream, also sustained extensive water damage.
Anyone with additional information is asked to contact Detective Christian Jenkins at 241-1680 or police dispatch at 241-1711.
High surf closes Kauai beaches
Kauai County closed all north shore beaches from the Hanalei Pavilion to Kee Beach to swimming Wednesday because of high surf.
An earlier high surf warning was downgraded to an advisory for north and west shores of Kauai County, Oahu and Molokai, and the north shores of Maui until 6 a.m. Thursday.
The National Weather Service said waves should be diminishing to 15 to 20 feet along north-facing shores and 10 to 15 feet along west-facing shores.
On Kauai, lifeguards reported wave heights of up to 20 feet on north shores Wednesday morning.
Another northwest swell is predicted by the National Weather Service to arrive Friday and bring warning-level surf Friday night through Saturday.
