Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson announced today that a North Platte man was sentenced to the Nebraska Department of Corrections after pleading no contest to stealing more than $10,000 from his mother. Billy Phillips, 50, was sentenced to 18 months after appearing before Judge Vicki Johnson in Fillmore County District Court and was immediately taken into custody.

Phillips acted as the power of attorney for his mother while she resided in a nursing facility in Fillmore County. Over the past five years, he withdrew money from his mother’s checking account and also cashed her annuity checks, converting $10,495.30 of his mother’s money for his own use. His mother died in February 2021.

The theft case was investigated and prosecuted by the Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit of the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.