The state recently called a woman on her bluff after she attempted to enhance her monthly financial fetch from her welfare checks with a work comp check. San Bernardino resident, 37-year-old Emilia Sanchez was faced with the decision of getting a job and losing her welfare benefits or staying unemployed to keep the checks rolling... Read More
Sheriff May Break on Through to the Other Side of a Cell
A shot has been fired over the bow of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department warning employees that fraudulent workers’ compensation claims won’t be tolerated. Out on $30,000 bail, 36-year-old Deputy Robert Justin was charged Oct. 24 with six felony counts for filing a false workers’ compensation claim. Five of the counts were for insurance... Read More
Suspect Takes His Third Swing On A Fraudulent Work Comp Claim
Instead of the standard potential five years in state prison and fines up to $50,000 for committing insurance fraud in California, a Mariposa County man is looking at 25 to life. Going up on his third strike, Mario Moreno was arrested Oct. 7 after it was discovered he made several misrepresentations concerning his physical abilities... Read More
It’s the end of the road for a workers’ compensation fraud Ironwoman and her chiropractor. After a few triathalons and a slew of claims that transpired over a seven-year period state fraud investigators and Kings County authorities finally caught Charlotte Chapman-Allyn catching her breath. Chapman-Allyn filed a workers’ compensation claim in 1995 that was reported... Read More
Butte County authorities have cracked the backs of a couple chiropractors running their business like a Chico keg party where anything goes. Chiropractors Terry Gibson and Linda Powers were targeted in a yearlong sting operation after a patient tipped off authorities. Undercover operatives posed as injured patients with workers’ compensation claims. During the investigation the... Read More
The California Department of Insurance Criminal Investigations Branch’s Fraud Division has been busy in the greater Sacramento region this month. Videotape has been the secret weapon that has taken two workers’ compensation fraud cases down. Shawn Jay Thomas, a 34-year-old from Cameron Park was booked on insurance fraud and perjury June 10. Through video surveillance,... Read More
Darlene Berdeaux, 42, could face up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine after pleading guilty, April 10, to workers’ compensation fraud. Berdeaux burnt her hand in 1997 while working as a waitress at Seaside Park. At the time, she was given a Demerol shot in her right hip. She has since complained... Read More
A ten-year veteran of the claims examining community has been caught “adjusting” some claims to earn herself a supplemental income. Candace A. England, of Oakland, was arrested Feb. 26 on nine counts of insurance fraud. The 31-year-old worked for State Farm since 1992 and admitted to California Department of Insurance investigators that she had filed... Read More
