WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two parents who enrolled their three children in District of Columbia schools near the police station where they worked were ordered to pay more than $500,000 in fines and fees for allegedly stealing the public education.

D.C. police officers Lt. Alan Hill and Sgt. Candace Hill were ordered to pay $448,047 in damages and $90,000 in fines for allegedly violating the D.C. False Claims Act, which allows the city to triple the amount of damages for those who knowingly make false statements to avoid paying the city, The Washington Post reports.

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The Hills own a rental home in the Northeast area of D.C. and allegedly used the address to enroll their children in coveted public schools near the Northwest police station where they worked. The Hills’ three children attended D.C. schools between 2003 and 2013, while the family lived in Maryland and Virginia.

City law requires non-resident to pay between $7,000 and $10,000 a year in tuition, per student, to enroll their children in the D.C. public schools, according to the news site.

UWSA reports the Hills paid taxes on the rental home in the district, but did not qualify as residents when they sent their children to Eaton Elementary, Alice Deal Middle School, and Wilson High School. The couple told the court they thought they met the residency requirements.

Last June, the D.C. Office of the Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the parents, alleging they were stealing the public education for their children.

“The three DCPS schools that defendants’ children attended are conveniently located near defendants’ place of work,” the lawsuit read. “Indeed, as defendants admitted to MPS investigators, defendants would occasionally use a marked police cruiser from the Second District to transport their children to school in the morning.”

According to the Associated Press, two of the Hill children started in city schools in 2003 and the third started in 2005. The school district ordered the family to remove their children from the schools in 2013.

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“D.C. taxpayers should not be subsidizing the education of children from other states,” Attorney General Karl Racine announced Thursday, though he neglected to mention that the Hills are taxpayers in D.C. “We will continue to investigate and prosecute those who falsely claim District residency in order to obtain government benefits to which they are not entitled.”

The Post reports that the Office of Attorney General has sued dozens of parents over alleged nonresident tuition fraud since 2012, and has thus fare secured 24 judgements against parents for a total of $1.2 million.

Candace Hill declined to speak with the Post about the specifics of the family’s legal issues, but said “it’s way more complicated than black and white.”

Walter Garcia, who served as advisory neighborhood commissioner for the area for 2013-14, told WUSA he thinks all taxpayers should have the option of enrolling their children in D.C. schools.

“If I pay taxes in that state, I should be entitled to my child go to school in that state or city,” he said.

The news site reports that out of the roughly 45,000 students enrolled in D.C. public schools, only 198 are registered as nonresidents and pay tuition.