MEMPHIS, Tenn. (FOX13) -
Southwest Community College head basketball coach and athletic director Benjamin Rhodes fessed up to stealing more than $12,000 in social security disability payments from four dead people.
Rhodes confessed to the crime in U.S. District Court in Memphis and now faces five years in federal prison.
He also confessed to concealing the death of one of those people in order to keep collecting the checks.
"In light of Mr. Rhodes' plea in the Federal Courts, President Nathan Essex has stated that Mr. Rhodes has been terminated at Southwest Tennessee Community College," says Southwest Community College in an email statement.
Rhodes admitted in federal court he began the scheme in 2007 when he used rental properties and appointed guardianships to collect the checks.
According to Southwest Community College, Rhodes was appointed Interim Athletic Director and Head Men's Basketball Coach July 1, 2012, after serving as Assistant to Coach Verties Sails, Jr. for nineteen years.
