(MONTGOMERY)—Attorney General Troy King announced the conviction of an Anniston woman for first-degree theft. Charlene Trapp Smith, 59, misrepresented to an insurance provider that her disabled husband was still alive and accepted worker’s compensation checks for five years after he died.
Smith pleaded guilty Monday in Calhoun County Circuit Court and was ordered to pay $21,000 in restitution. She was sentenced to 36 months in the penitentiary, was ordered to pay a $500 fine and court costs. Smith will apply for probation at a hearing on January 14, 2009.
“Worker’s compensation insurance is a critical resource for those who are truly and legitimately in need,” said Attorney General King. “It is not a slush fund to be exploited by those who see an opportunity to take what does not belong to them. It is a crime to take worker’s compensation benefits to which you are not entitled, and it is appropriate that Charlene Trapp Smith be held to account for her crime. Let this be a warning to others who may be tempted to steal worker’s compensation benefits that this is indeed a crime and they will be prosecuted.”
ForestFund, a provider of worker’s compensation insurance for forestry-related businesses, was the victim of Smith’s theft. “ForestFund is a group fund which allows the state’s forest industry employers to pool their resources to cover each others’ workers’ compensation liabilities. This kind of fraud takes away money that could have been used to pay legitimate disability benefits and medical bills for workers who are injured on the job, “said Boyd Kelly, president of Forest Fund. “I commend Attorney General King and his team for the investigation and prosecution of this fraud against the hard working, honest employees of Alabama’s forestry community.”
Attorney General King commended Assistant Attorneys General Noel Barnes and Stephanie Billingslea of his White Collar Crime and Public Corruption Division and Special Agent Jeff Chandler of his Investigations Division for their outstanding work in bringing this case to a successful conclusion.
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