Fraudulent ‘doctor’ is thorn in insurer’s side
Aviva Canada’s anti-fraud team triggered a police investigation into a man purporting to be a physician and treating Aviva insureds for injuries they sustained in auto accidents. The man is alleged to have led the public and various insurance companies to believe he was a licensed physician when he is not licensed to practice medicine in Ontario.
Police said the man owned and operated Lindsay Medical Laser Therapy in Lindsay, Ontario.
When the investigators closed in on the Ontario healthcare clinic, the man shut down the operation and re-opened a clinic in Alberta, Aviva Canada’s investigators allege.
After collaboration between Aviva Canada, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), the Toronto Police Service, the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Ontario and members of the Crown Attorney’s office in Toronto, a Canada‐wide arrest warrant was issued for the man’s arrest.
Police arrested Arun Reddy, 31, in Fort Saskatchewan, and brought him back to Ontario to face 15 counts of fraud and one count of false misrepresentation.
Vet in the doghouse
Dodgy medical practitioners are also making themselves in known in the UK. Devious veterinary surgeon Francisco Cruz was found guilty of conning an insurer out of almost $14,000 by making fictitious veterinary treatment claims for non-existent pets.
He made claims for three dogs and a cat, who he claimed had undergone surgery between November 2008 and February 2012.
To make his claims appear authentic, he took out the policies in the names of family and friends, sent the insurer invoices from the veterinary practice in which he worked and telephoned the insurer pretending to be the vet who performed the surgeries.
Cruz, 32, from Warwickshire, crimes were uncovered in April of last year when a £2,705 claim to a second insurer, for surgery on a dog, was identified as fraudulent and referred to the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department for investigation.
In the same month IFED detectives arrested Cruz at his then workplace – a veterinary practice in Norfolk – and quickly uncovered the four previous claims.
He received a suspended jail term last month.
Gun insurance bill ringleader receives death threats
In America, one congresswoman’s attempts to curb gun violence has put her in harm’s way.
In response to growing calls for anti-gun laws, New York representative Carolyn Maloney has introduced a new law which requires all firearm holders to have gun liability insurance.
Under the Firearms Risk Protection Act, anyone who fails to purchase insurance when buying a gun, will be fined US$10,000.
“For too long, gun victims and society at large have borne the brunt of the costs of gun violence. My bill would change that by shifting some of that cost back onto those who own the weapons,” she said.
“While many individual states are debating this issue now, it makes more sense for Congress to establish a national requirement to allow the insurance markets to begin to price the risks involved consistently nationwide.”
However, Maloney has received death threats over the bill. The calls were fielded by young interns who were said to be “understandably shaken”.
