My Neck…My Back! My Neck and My Back!

This title comes to me in a moment of sheer genius and was taken from an except of an movie some of you may or may not know. In this movie, a customer fakes an injury in the local corner store to try and sue the owner of the business. It didn't work for the guy in the movie and it didn't work for the employee you're about to read about.

According to this article, "a former prison guard was convicted of 14 counts of fraud Monday after a Sacramento County jury agreed with prosecutors that she faked injuries to qualify for workers' compensation and a state disability pension." Back in 1999 she fell 16 ft from a watch tower and had to have surgery on her shoulder and jaw. She complained of ongoing back pain which meant she could no longer do some of the things she loved to do such as ride a personal watercraft or more importantly work.

Call me Paul Harvey because it's time for the rest of the story…

She was placed under surveillance one month after her surgery and seen on video at a local lake. Two years later she was video taped going down water slides and even operating a personal watercraft on choppy waters. So much for giving up the things she loves in life…one thing she definitely gave up was the idea of ever working again.

In 2002, she was awarded, a tax free $2,400 per month for her permanent disability pension from the state and the total loss of her claim has peaked over the 300K mark.

Kudos to the investigation team and exposing this fraud. She is facing somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 years of prison time. Now this former prison guard faces the harsh reality of sitting behind the bars that she once guarded.

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Posted December 5th, 2007 by Vincent - Posted in Human Resources, Insurance Fraud, Safety, Workers' Comp, pensions | | 0 Comments