Mother Arrested For Fraudulent Workers’ Compensation Claims

It is important to look out for one’s family in California. However, sometimes it is one’s own family that can be a bad influence, leading some people to make poor life decisions. Unfortunately, this seems to have been the case for one mother who had apparently convinced her own daughters to take part in a fraudulent workers’ compensation claims scheme.

Apparently, the mother had applied to a local Wendy’s fast food restaurant using one of her twin daughter’s personal information and identity. The mother then allegedly injured her leg while on the job shortly after she began working for the restaurant. It turns out this injury was similar to an injury she claimed when filing for Social Security disability benefits. Investigators have discovered that the woman had been receiving disability benefits from Social Security at the time she applied for employment with Wendy’s.

The other twin daughter, who was already working at the same Wendy’s location, attempted to corroborate her mother’s deception, calling her mother by her sister’s name when she spoke with investigators. The mother was subsequently arrested in late July after the alleged workers’ compensation fraud scheme was discovered. Even at the time of the arrest, the mother was still attempting to pretend to be her daughter and even showed her daughter’s identification to police officers as they were arresting her.

Schemes such as this one are not only detrimental to the person being arrested for filing fraudulent workers’ compensation claims, they can also be detrimental to an employer in California. Fraudulent claims can cause insurance premiums to rise for an employer. Therefore, it may be in an employer’s best financial interest to be vigilant and take necessary legal actions when fraud is discovered.

Source: businessinsurance.com, “Wendy’s employee cribbing daughter’s ID arrested for workers comp fraud”, Stephanie Goldberg, July 23, 2015