There are many kinds of insurance that individuals need to be covered for every event in life. And here at , we do conduct the following: Personal Injury Investigations, slip and fall accident investigation, product liability cases, vehicle accident investigations, worker’s compensation fraud investigation and disability insurance fraud investigations and many times just fraud investigations.
We received a call from an insurance company that they had a claimant who filed a claim that his house had been broken into and his audio equipment had been stolen. He estimated the worth to be around $35,000.00. He had called the police and made a report and was given a police report. In the report there were a few statements that just didn’t make sense to the Insurance Company. The Claimant stated he was gone for just a short while and upon his return his front door was ajar, which he stated he had locked prior to leaving. He entered the house and didn’t see anything disturbed until he went into his studio and saw his equipment missing. He immediately phoned the police and was assigned a detective. The detective took photographs of the empty shelves and asked the Claimant if he had any pictures of the missing/stolen items. The claimant provided the detective with several photos. The detective then went to both neighbors to inquire if they had observed anything at the Claimant’s residence in the past few hours. One neighbor said the only vehicle they saw at the residence was a red truck, but they didn’t think anything of it because the Claimant’s brother often visited in a red truck. The other neighbor did not observe anything. The police report was provided to the Insurance Company along with a copy of the photos. The Insurance adjuster reviewed the evidence and noticed there was a March issue of a magazine in one photos and it was April. Was it just coincidence that the Claimant had recently taken the photos of his audio equipment?
We began to conduct a background check upon the Claimant and learned he had recently gotten a divorce and his hours at work were cut back. His ex-wife had been awarded child support and his financial situation was not good. We conducted a financial background and learned he had recently deposited over $8,000.00 in cash into his bank account. We learned he was paid bi-weekly and his pay was direct deposit. He did not have a side business that he would receive any type of cash payment. We learned he paid a lump sum to the court, but still owed his attorney several thousand dollars and was in civil court for the payment.
We conducted an interview with the Claimant’s ex-wife, who stated he had filed an insurance claim several years back when they were first married on a piece of jewelry he had inherited from his grandfather that was of considerable value, but he had actually sold the item to a friend for a fraction of the price. He received a check from the Insurance Company and later got the ring back from his friend. At the time, they were broke and needed the money because she was pregnant.
Needless to say, the Insurance Company didn’t pay the claim and the Claimant was prosecuted for filing insurance fraud and ordered to pay court costs. His insurance was terminated and we never learned what happened with the equipment.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations
