A retired Pennsylvania Superior Court judge serving a 46-month prison sentence for insurance fraud can keep his keep his $82,000 annual pension.

Michael Joyce, who began in April serving his sentence at a minimum-security prison in West Virginia, can keep the pension because his conviction was not a result of his public employment, the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System ruled, according to a report in the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette.

Joyce, 60, was convicted in November of mail fraud and money laundering in conjunction with $440,000 in fraudulent insurance claims stemming from alleged neck and back injuries sustained in a car crash in August 2001.

Prosecutors continue to seek the forfeiture of his house, saying he used some of the proceeds from the insurance fraud to pay for it, according to the newspaper report.