BANGOR — A Brewer man has been sentenced to six months in prison for continuing to collect his mother’s worker’s compensation survivor benefits for the death of her husband even after she died.

Federal prosecutors say 57-year-old Joseph Lebard was also sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation and ordered to pay nearly $70,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors say Lebard’s mother died in April 2006, yet he continued to collect more than $1,100 per month in benefits until September 2010.

Checks were sent to the Bangor address he shared with his mother until her death, and he forged his mother’s signature on the checks before mailing them to a bank with a forged note directing that the money be deposited into his account.

Lebard pleaded guilty in August to theft of public money.