An Auckland woman who spent her dead mother's war widow's pension for nearly four years says her parents would be ashamed of her offending.
Nanette Judith Thomas said when her mum Nita died in November 2009, the 67-year-old hit rock bottom.
She had quit her job to look after the ailing woman and by the time she died, Thomas was left penniless and unable to pay the rent for the Epsom address they shared.
"Within days of mum passing I was packed up, out of that place and on Waiheke. No money, nothing," she said.
"I went to the bank and there was money there so I used it. I ran, drank, gambled."
But the money was not hers.
More than 20 years earlier, her father - a World War II veteran who fought in Italy - had died of melanoma.
Like thousands of others, as a surviving spouse, Thomas' received a pension from Veteran Affairs New Zealand (VANZ) of about $300 a fortnight.
The organisation, a unit of the Defence Force, was never told Nita Thomas died and continued putting money into her account until August, 2013.
Unknown to Veteran Affairs, the offender had access to her mother's account and she made 580 transactions in nearly four years.
At North Shore District Court in August, Thomas admitted a charge of using a bank card to obtain a pecuniary advantage of nearly $30,000 she was not entitled to.
She was due to be sentenced this week but a judge adjourned the hearing until next month because he had not received pre-sentence reports.
The only reason the prolonged offending was uncovered was because VANZ became concerned when they did not receive responses to letters sent to Nita Thomas.
Enquiries with the Ministry of Social Development revealed the woman had been dead for years.
The case was handed on to police after it became clear someone was bleeding the woman's account dry.
ASB provided CCTV footage which depicted Thomas using bank cards and other financial records showed she had used the misappropriated funds at Panmure Medical Centre and Waiheke RSA.
Thomas, who has no history of criminal offending, told APNZ she had "crucified" herself over what her dead parents would think if they were alive.
"I think about what mum and dad would say. They would've hated it, because they didn't bring me up like that," she said.
Thomas said she did not know where the money was coming from but knew it was wrong to take it.
"I was just surviving. I don't have an excuse. I know it was wrong. I just wasn't thinking," she said.
Her financial difficulties also meant she was not able to give her mother a funeral, something she said she regretted.
VANZ supports more than 5000 surviving spouses of veterans with approximately $46 million paid in the 2013/14 financial year.