Content courtesy of  "Insurance Journal" - 1/23/06

SAN DIEGO/SAN FRANCISCO -- A former employee of a San Diego custom kitchen cabinet company was sentenced in San Diego County Superior Court on one count of workers’ compensation insurance fraud. Superior Court Judge Timothy Walsh ordered Joseph Pankey, 38, of Santee to nine months in a residential rehabilitation center and three years formal probation. Judge Walsh also ordered Pankey to pay a restitution of $5,424.00 to State Fund.

State Fund provided workers’ compensation coverage to Pankey’s former employer – Holland’s Custom Kitchens – from October 2001 through the end of 2005. The restitution covers State Fund’s costs for Pankey’s false workers’ compensation insurance claim he filed in 2002. State Fund assisted the San Diego Country District Attorney’s Office in its investigation.

Pankey reported a back injury in 2002 while employed at Holland’s Custom Kitchens. During the claims investigation, State Fund received a tip of possible workers’ compensation fraud involving Pankey. A subrosa investigation documented Pankey working as a cabinetmaker at another firm following his alleged injury at Holland’s Custom Kitchens. State Fund submitted its investigation of the case to the San Diego County DA’s Office.

State Fund’s Fraud Investigation Program (FIP) addresses all aspects of workers’ compensation insurance fraud, including employee, employer, medical and legal. State Fund’s FIP has produced hundreds of arrests and convictions in a wide range of workers’ compensation cases.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Established by the California Legislature in 1914, State Compensation Insurance Fund guarantees the availability of workers' compensation coverage at cost to all California employers and competes fairly with private carriers. State Fund is a wholly self-supporting non-profit enterprise that serves as a moderating and stabilizing influence on California's workers' compensation insurance system.