WAILUKU — A Lahaina woman has been ordered to pay back nearly $6,000 in welfare benefits she collected while failing to report that her children weren’t living in her household.

Angelique Ahia, 36, stole from the state Department of Human Services when she took the benefits, said 2nd Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo.

“A lot of other people are deserving of benefits like this,” Loo said in sentencing Ahia on Friday.

Ahia was placed on four years’ probation and was given credit for more than a month she previously had spent in jail.

When she received the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from September 2016 to December 2017, one child was living with another parent and another child was boarding at Lahainaluna High School, the judge noted.

“Yet you claimed them,” Loo told Ahia. “You were receiving benefits for three when it was only you.”

The judge compared it to booking restaurant reservations for a larger group to get a nicer table and having only one person show up.

“When you make reservations for a table of three and you’re a party of one, it’s just not fair to the other patrons,” Loo said. “You took this extra money, which you were not entitled to.”

Ahia had pleaded no contest to second-degree theft, welfare fraud and first-degree bail jumping.

“What we got here is a failure to communicate,” said Deputy Prosecutor Jeffery Temas, referring to Ahia’s failure to tell Department of Human Services officials about changes in her household.

She swiped her benefit card about 400 times to receive the overpayments, Temas said.

As part of a plea agreement recommending probation for Ahia, she was supposed to provide $400 toward repayment Friday, but the money wasn’t delivered, Temas said. He said Ahia also was about a half-hour late to court Friday.

After Ahia said she would have the money within a week, she was ordered to make the $400 payment by the end of the month.

While Temas didn’t argue that Ahia had breached the plea agreement by not delivering the money, Judge Loo said she considered it a breach and ordered Ahia to perform 300 hours of community service.

She was ordered to pay $5,930 in restitution and to write a letter apologizing to the Department of Human Services. Ahia also was ordered not to consume alcohol or illegal drugs.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.