Metro

LIRR fraud ‘lame’brain

If it’s a play for sympathy, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

A crooked LIRR retiree pleaded guilty yesterday to scamming nearly $250,000 in disability benefits — after showing up in Manhattan federal court with a soft cast strapped to his left foot.

Kevin Nugent, 57, admitted filing a bogus application for a disability pension in 2006 and falsely recertifying the claim five years later, “when, in truth, I was physically able to work the day I retired, and afterward.”

Neither Nugent nor his defense lawyer would say why he needed to wear the medical device.

Nugent and another LIRR retiree, Sharon Falloon, both pleaded guilty yesterday to a slew of charges and agreed to cooperate with the federal probe of the massive, $1 million “gravy train” pension scheme on the Railroad Retirement Board.

Falloon, 58, admitted swindling $177,000 before she was caught working out at a gym, despite claiming she could no longer work as a human-resources manager due to “disabling pain” from walking or standing.