Fraud Prevention Month is starting off with a bang, as one Toronto health and rehabilitation centre has been ordered to pay $75,000 in fines.
The North York Health and Rehabilitation Centre, located at 1280 Finch Avenue West, Suite 519, Toronto, Ont., was ordered to pay $75,000 in fines on Monday after its principals pleaded guilty last fall to engaging in unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the business of insurance related to auto insurance fraud.
“We brought these criminals to justice because police, IBC, individual insurance companies and FSCO all worked very hard and collaborated well with each other,” says Rick Dubin, vice-president of investigative services, IBC. “Insurance crime is big business that siphons dollars away from our health care system, emergency services, courts and insurers. Having the courts take these crimes seriously by imposing hefty fines sends an important message as we start Fraud Prevention Month.”
The fine and conviction came as a result of Financial Services Commission of Ontario prosecutions related to cooperative investigations into a Toronto area staged collision and health care fraud ring. The investigations involved several insurers and IBC Investigative Services in support of the Toronto Police Services’ Project Whiplash.
According to
Insurance Bureau of Canada, insurers have paid out an estimated $4 million in fraudulent claims as a result of this scam. (continued.)
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Three Toronto-area rehabilitation clinics have been convicted of multiple insurance act offences as a result of Project Whiplash, with fines as high as $100,000 imposed per conviction.
Jeyakanthan Thivendran, a principal of North York Health and Rehabilitation Centre, pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to take reasonable care to prevent the company from providing insurance claims forms to an insurer that were not in accordance with the Insurance Act and regulations, was also fined $5,000.
