Working as a nanny can be rewarding as well as very tiring. As a surrogate parent, nannies usually have to perform physical duties such as laundry, cooking, cleaning, picking up toys and kids, and driving them and their sports equipment around to a long list of activities. (Oh my aching back.)A Washington state woman, who claimed to have an injured back, collected nearly $25,000 in workers’ compensation benefits from a previous employer, while working as a full-time nanny. (Either she had a really good back brace, or her back was not as bad off as claimed.)
Prior to being a nanny, the woman at the center of today’s case worked as a baker and a cashier in a Seattle neighborhood. Unfortunately, during the time that she worked for the café, she witnessed a robbery. While trying to flee from the robber, she ran into a wall and injured her back. (I wonder if the robber was after money or a bite of a blueberry muffin.)
Healthcare providers verified that she was unable to work due to her injuries from the incident. She qualified for workers’ compensation benefits and consequently received $24,847 from the Department of Labor & Industries over two years.
An investigation revealed that the woman accepted a position as a nanny and worked for nearly two years. At the same time, she claimed on official workers’ compensation forms that she was unable to work due to the injuries incurred during the robbery at her former workplace.
The 33-year-old nanny eventually pleaded guilty to felony theft and was sentenced to 20 days in jail. Fortunately for her, the sentence was converted to 160 hours of community service. (Maybe she was required to pick up heavy things as punishment.)
Although this fraudster legitimately experienced a robbery and incurred an injury from that experience, the former baker definitely cooked up a scheme to steal government benefits she did not deserve. She got burned by the illegal scam in the end and will probably have difficulty finding a job because of her fraudulent past.
Source: Today’s ”Fraud of the Day” is based on an article entitled, ”Judge Tells Washington Woman to Repay $25K in Workers’ Comp Scam,” published by the Insurance Journal on July 20, 2016.
A Washington woman injured in a robbery at her workplace pleaded guilty this week to felony theft.
Yurizan Cuevas, 33, of Federal Way, reportedly worked full time as a nanny while claiming she was too disabled to work.
A Streamwood woman who headed a Schaumburg-based home healthcare business was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay $15.6 million in restitution Tuesday, July 26 in a federal courtroom in Chicago by U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras.
