BOSTON — A Dorchester man pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to fraudulently collecting food-assistance and health care benefits under another man's name, the U.S. attorney's office for Massachusetts said.

Danis Piron Lara, 51, pleaded guilty to unlawfully obtaining Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and to making a false writing related to health care matters, prosecutors said. They described him as a native of the Dominican Republic living in the country unlawfully.

According to prosecutors, Piron Lara obtained several identification documents from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles using the name and personal information of a U.S. citizen from Puerto Rico. Beginning in 2005, prosecutors said, he used that identity to collect MassHealth benefits he was not entitled to in 2005, 2006, 2009 through 2014, 2016, and 2018 through March, receiving $57,289.26 in all.

From April 2021 through March, posing as the same man, he also received $15,186 in SNAP benefits, prosecutors said.

Piron Lara was charged in March. The SNAP fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and the health care charge carries up to five years. Senior U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor will sentence him.

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