An American beauty queen has been charged with three counts of insurance fraud after she claimed she could not work at her grocery store job because of a fractured toe, but was spotted competing in pageants wearing high heels.
Shawna Lynn Palmer, 22, defrauded an insurance company when she told her Californian grocery store employer she could not work because of her toe injury – but really it was so she could compete in beauty pageants.
A few days after her doctor issued her with a pair of crutches and ordered her to keep weight off her injury; Palmer was spotted at a Long Beach beauty pageant in a pair of skyscraper stiletto heels and a bikini.
The Daily Mail reports she went back to the doctor and falsely claimed she had not put any weight on her foot and had not worn shoes.
Palmer was off work for weeks, during which time she competed in more beauty pageants. She even posted a picture of herself on Facebook winning third place in a bikini contest, wearing a bikini and stilettos.
If Palmer is found guilty she faces a year in jail and up to three years on probation. She will also have to pay back the USD $24,000 claimed.
Byron Tucker, who works with the state's deputy insurance commissioner, told news outlet KTLA: “People might want to say here's a young lady who had beauty and bravado in making these claims, but it really didn't add up on the brains side of it.”
