New York City ? Irene Prusik has been dead for six years. But in April, someone showed up at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Brooklyn to renew her driver’s license.

The explanation given by prosecutors rivals the Hitchcock classic “Psycho”: It was her son, in drag.

Thomas Parkin, 49, was charged Wednesday in the bizarre plot to impersonate his deceased mother so he could collect $117,000 in government benefits. He and the man accused of being his accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo, pleaded not guilty to grand larceny, criminal impersonation and other charges.

Both men were ordered held on $1 million bail. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to phone messages left on Wednesday.

Authorities claim that following his arrest, Parkin told them that because he held Prusik when she breathed her last breath, “I am my mother.”