An Austrian man is now facing several charges after he allegedly concealed the death of his mother in order to continue collecting money from the government on her behalf.

66-year-old man was arrested on Thursday after a confession.

According to the report, the 89-year-old woman may have died sometime around June of 2020 and instead of reporting her death to the proper authorities, her son mummified her body and kept it in the basement of the home.

Officials say the man froze his mother’s body using ice packs and then wrapped the body in bandages to soak up any bodily fluids:

“He covered his mother with cat litter and finally the corpse was mummified,” Helmut Gufler, head of the police’s social security fraud unit, said in an interview with public broadcaster ORF, according to AFP news agency.

When the man’s brother would come to visit their mother, the suspect would tell him she was unavailable because she was in the hospital.

The man got away with the crime until a new postman asked to see the recipient of the benefits he was delivering. When the man couldn’t provide it, the postman the contacted authorities.

Officials later visited the man’s home and found that his mother had died some time ago.

The man then confessed to his dealings.

Authorities say he was able to collect over €50,000 ($59,000) before he was caught.

He is now facing benefit fraud and hiding a dead body charges.