An Exeter man was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bangor on Friday to 41 months in prison, three years of supervised released and was ordered to pay $18,042 in restitution after he pleaded guilty to making false statements to obtain Social Security benefits and being an accessory after the fact in a pharmacy robbery.
According to the office of U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II, Clifford Sprague, 38, received $12,864 in Social Security disability payments for himself and three children from March 2011 to March 2012. During a review of his benefits, Sprague told another person to falsely claim that Sprague required someone to clean, bath, dress and cook for him and that Sprague did not work outside his house. However, Delahanty’s office said Sprague did not have disabilities that required someone else to help him in the house and he worked as a scrap metal dealer, carpenter and woodcutter while getting the disability benefits.
In March 2012, Michael Thompson stole more than $5,000 in narcotics from a Rite Aid pharmacy in Guilford after brandishing a knife, police said. After the robbery, Thompson called Sprague, Delahanty’s office said, to pick him up. Sprague did so, but told Thompson to get out after he spotted a Somerset County Sheriff’s patrol car. Thompson ran off into the woods, eventually was caught and in June 2015, was sentenced to 82 months in prison.
Sprague, according to court documents, eventually used and sold some of the narcotics that Thompson had stolen.
Sprague was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge John A. Woodcock.
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