Insurance Fraud Odditorium
Welcome to the world of insurance weird, the surreal side of an $80-billion annual theft spree called insurance fraud.
The Odditorium reveals the bizarre plots, screwball twists, extreme schemes and worst-laid plans of insurance thieves whose low road makes your premiums higher.
Fraud is no joke...but the joke’s on these insurance cheaters.
Some of the thieves bumble and fumble — they can’t keep their lies straight or plots thick. Other crooks are clever but still doomed; their thievery is too outlandish to get away with.
You just have to roll your eyes and say, “They did what?”
Well, here’s what...
Body of evidence unburied. The plot seems right out of a ghoul novel...but Molly and Clayton Daniels dug up the grave of an elderly woman, dressed her in Clayton’s clothing, stuffed her body in their car and pushed the vehicle off a cliff. The Leander, Tex. couple wanted to collect $110,000 in life-insurance money, hoping the insurer would believe the charred body in the burned-out car was Clayton. Soon after the seemingly fatal crash, the dearly departed Clayton mysteriously reappeared as Molly’s new live-in boyfriend, one “Jake Gregg.” Clayton had died his hair and wore a new mustache. The couple even forged fake a birth certificate, high school transcript and driver license. But DNA testing of the elderly woman’s body helped prove “Jake” was Clayton. Molly received 20 years in prison, and Clayton at least 10 years.
Cripple con wheeled out. Samuel Aaron Brabson tried to take his auto insurer for a ride — a wheelchair ride. The Richmond-area man said a car crash aggravated old neck and back injuries from an earlier accident. Brabson lied that he was a virtual cripple, largely confined to a wheelchair. It was a sad story. But far from crippled, Brabson secretly competed in grueling triathlons and took girlfriends on long mountain hikes. When a friend spotted him standing with no problem in a grocery store, Brabson quickly lied that he was his “twin.” The Virginia State Police helped land his conviction. Brabson received 20 years, with all but one year suspended.
Wrestling with crime. Claiming he slipped on a puddle of coffee on a 7-Eleven floor, professional wrestler Michael Taris tried to extort an insurance shakedown for his supposed injuries. The Leavittown, Pa. man said the fall so badly injured him that he couldn’t work, roughhouse with his son, or even mow the lawn. But get this...video surveillance caught the cripple in full wrestling glory. He was seen being thrown against the ropes, getting tossed from the ring, and leaping off ropes and slamming into big, beefy opponents. His ring antics were pure theater, just like his injury. The Pennsylvania AG landed a conviction, earning Taris three years of probation and a fine.
Teacher flunks fraud test. High school chemistry teacher Tramesha Lashon Fox fell behind on payments for her Chevy Malibu, and decided to unload the car for insurance money. So the Houston-area woman gave two failing chemistry students passing grades to “steal” the car and burn it. Fox left the car unlocked at a local mall while she and her daughter were inside watching a movie. The students found the keys in the glove compartment. They drove her Chevy to a nearby wooded area and set it afire with lighter fluid. They also broke the steering column to make the plot seem like a real theft. Fox passed the kids in chemistry, but she flunked in court: Fox received 90 days in county jail.
Shakedown plot shattered. Ok, hold your breath and clutch your stomach...Ronald Evano swallowed broken glass, then lied that he’d chomped on the dangerous shards in restaurants and bars. It was all part of an insurance shakedown of the innocent businesses. Evano didn’t just stick glass in his stomach once. Evano bit on shards up and down the East Coast. Typically he then went to emergency rooms, where medical personnel found the broken glass in his stomach and often treated him for internal bleeding. Evano usually convinced the victimized businesses or their insurers to pay out to avoid big lawsuits and messy publicity. Evano used aliases, plus fake IDs and Social Security cards to avoid detection. He stole more than $200,000 overall. On top of all his stomachaches, Evano received 63 months in prison.
Van scam treed. Incredibly, two Illinois couples videotaped themselves crashing a van into a tree for a bogus insurance claim — and even laughing about it. No subtlety here. First, the video shows Union County man Robert Hammond slamming the beleaguered van into the tree. He and a crony keep banging the van, four times in all on full-view video. Hammond and his wife Teresa used the insurance money to pay co-conspirator Margaret Dillavou rent they owed her. After pounding the van’s front end into scrap, Robert and Teresa told Progressive Insurance that she’d hit a tree while swerving to avoid a dog. But Dillavou lost track of the tape. It ended up with her estranged husband during a divorce. He wasn’t involved in the setup crashes, but was plenty mad about the divorce and gladly handed over the tape to police. The Hammonds plus Dillavou and her boyfriend received two years of probation.
Judging the judges. When judges who are sworn to enforce the law become insurance thieves, they aim high but can fall hard. Pennsylvania appellate judge Michael Joyce said a minor 5 mph bumper-bender made him a virtual cripple and muddled his mind. The Erie man extracted $440,000 from his auto policy and the other driver’s coverage. But Joyce then earned his pilot’s license and went flying. He also went scuba diving in the Caribbean, golfing at world-class resorts, working out at a fitness center and even rollerblading. The insurance money also financed a motorcycle, hot tub, and payments on a home and airplane. The high-flying flyer crash landed with 46 months in prison...Another judge also met his fate: Don McAuliffe burned down his Ohio lakeside house for more than $235,000 in insurance money. At trial, the Fairfield County man blamed his girlfriend, her kids, insurance agent and handyman. But they all were cooperating with authorities behind his back, and McAuliffe received 10 years in federal prison.
Gunning for insurance cash. Going to body-mangling extremes for insurance money, swindlers sometimes even shoot themselves. No, really. Figuring he could help his cousin get out of work, Joseph Francis Brooks shot his cousin in the leg to fake a robbery. Pierre Lamont Taylor worked for UPS and said he was shot while being robbed on the job around Rockville, Md. Sporting a fresh bullet hole, Taylor made a workers compensation claim with Liberty Mutual, which paid out a lump sum of $250,000. The not-so-enterprising duo split the money after getting the idea from a television show. Brooks received five years in prison (suspended) in a scheme that the judge called “one of the dumbest things” he’s ever seen...Then there’s former McCracken County (Ky.) deputy sheriff Benny Harding, who shot himself in the shoulder then lied he was wounded while on patrol. It was a plot to scam insurance money for a supposedly permanent disability. Harding received probation.
Fraud plots all wet. Some insurance plots turn soggy and bellyflop, thanks to bad planning and worse luck. Sundeep Dharni hired a crony to torch his Sacramento-area pizzeria. The crony spread barbecue starter around the place, lit a pile of towels and aprons, then bolted. But the hapless crony set the fire right underneath the sprinkler system. The water quickly quelled the flames, leaving Dharni with a 15-year jail sentence...Jesse Roberites planned to burn down his home for an insurance payout. So the Livonia, N.Y. man claimed he took his family on a vacation to Buffalo the night his home caught fire. But he screwed up. He set the fire too close to a water pipe in his basement. The pipe burst, and the water doused his fire before it could do much damage.
Burning with desire. Stuck with financial problems, Said Mahamoud Afifi tried to torch his furniture store for insurance payola. But the Upper Providence, Pa. man had no idea how to set a fire. The flames exploded, leaving him with second- and third-degree burns on his face, arms and legs. Compounding Afifi’s misery, his fire started the sprinkler system. The water quickly snuffed his blaze, and plot. Affifi then had a hard time explaining away his burns while making a fire claim. First he said he accidentally ignited himself while repairing furniture. Then he said he tried to burn himself up after losing his store. His insurer wasn’t amused. So the luckless Afifi was stuck with his burns and up to nearly two years in jail.
Cancer con in remission. Special education teacher Candice Patricia Lambert pretended she was dying of cancer so she could steal more than $100,000 in disability and other benefits. Her plight seemed so tragic to students, parents and fellow teachers. But unknown to them, the Harmony Hills Elementary School teacher near Albany, N.Y. was quite well. She even shaved her head to mimic the effects of chemotherapy. Lambert “retired” and moved to New Hampshire to spend her final days, she told everyone. But instead she landed another teaching job and told her new friends and colleagues she was dying. Lambert’s ploy collapsed when a former colleague in New York read an article about her in a New Hampshire newspaper. How could someone at death’s door still be teaching? the colleague wondered. An investigation followed, and Lambert received up to three years in prison.
Broken-back con broken. Frances Fredette was burglarizing a gas station, but fell off the roof, broke his back and tried to pin his screwup on his innocent landlord. Painfully injured, Fredette had his crony haul him back to his Rutland, Vt. apartment building and deposit him on the outside staircase. Fredette then sued his landlord in an insurance shakedown. He’d broken his back while slipping on the apartment stairs, Fredette lied. The con worked at first. The landlord’s insurance company paid out $500,000, and the unfortunate landlord wiped out his life savings to hand over another $150,000. He’d counted on that money for retirement. But Fredette’s crony turned remorseful and turned in Fredette. Caught with the goods and convicted, Fredette never apologized to the landlord. Instead, he announced he’ll appeal his 46-month sentence.
Burying the evidence. His broken-down BMW useless and costing too much money to fix, Matthew Muller buried the hapless car on his father’s property. The Akron, Ohio man then tried to collect $20,000 by lying to his auto insurer that someone stole it. But Muller had second thoughts and tried to dig up the BMW. He rented a backhoe and began chewing up dirt. But just his luck...the backhoe got stuck in the mud. A frustrated Muller gave up digging and abandoned the partially exposed BMW, leaving it for everyone to see. And before long, someone did see it: The backhoe-challenged Muller received a year in prison despite apologizing that his crime was “out of character.”
Stressed for fraud success? Claiming she was a nervous wreck after a man with a semi-automatic gun robbed the convenience store where she cashiered, Miranda Lorraine Pruitt demanded workers compensation money to help cope with her inner pain. The Redding, Calif.-area woman quit her job, claiming she was too upset to work anymore. She received more than $3,300 in workers comp money. But guess who helped stage the robbery? Yes, the seemingly traumatized Pruitt. She went along with the whole plot from the get-go. Pruitt merrily stole the insurance money, and didn’t come clean until cronies later fingered her to law enforcement.
