In order to help those in need get back on their feet and keep hardship from reaching the lowest-income members of society, well-being plays a crucial role in our society.
On the other hand, health fraud undermines all of these benefits and raises questions about the legitimacy of the entire system. While it can be challenging to uncover every type of health fraud, it is important to make sure that the money set aside for these purposes is spent on those who genuinely need it.
However, since police detained Sabrina Strothers of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, there is one less con artist out there today. The 23-year-old committed some of the largest-scale health frauds in recent memory by pretending to not just have a couple of children, but triplets back in 2008.
The triplets Sabrina Strothers claimed to have given birth to in 2008 did not exist.
Thomas, Tomalyia, and Tyreik Wilson were the names of the “kids,” and each had a social security number on file. She was immediately able to start collecting payments each month to support her “household” after the triplets made her eligible for welfare assistance.
She handled to avert detection for many years and years, all the methods approximately this January 2016. A cousin of hers obviously ended up being fed up with her totally free flight, and quickly Sabrina was dealing with even more than totally free checks each month.
Sabrina Strothers (Photo Credit: Police Mugshot, Myspace)
She is currently facing two counts of forgery, two counts of falsifying information in a health examination for each child, and a third count of theft by deception. If she hadn’t lied to detectives about a number of celebrations, her charges would have been less serious.
When the Office of the Inspector General first contacted Strothers in 2015, she informed them that the children lived with their father in Georgia. Her story fell apart when she was asked for supporting information like an address or phone number.
She quickly confessed to her criminal behavior, and she was promptly imprisoned. Fortunately, the private detectives didn’t have to worry about actual children—just a dishonest bad guy.
A total of $36,269 in food stamps, $90,000 in medical expenses, and $2,000 from a fund called Temporary Help for Needy Households were used to cover up the scam. Think about all the desperate, clingy families that loans from taxpayers could have helped over the years!
For some reason, she won’t appear in court for the first time until after a few months have passed. Her case will remain unresolved until that time, and her future is uncertain.
“If found guilty of committing welfare fraud, a defendant must make full restitution of the overpaid benefits, can receive a sentence that can include community service, probation, or incarceration, pay costs and fines to the court, and be disqualified for a period of time from public assistance benefits,” according to the Pennsylvania OIG.
Watch the video below for more details:
