Texas Woman Sentenced for ‘Double Dipping’ on Workers’ Comp

A New Braunfels, Texas, woman must perform community service and pay more than $7,000 in restitution after being sentenced on workers’ compensation fraud charges.

Texas Mutual Insurance Co. reported that Carolina Villanueva was sentenced in a Travis County district court to a Class A misdemeanor with two years deferred adjudication and 160 community service hours. She was ordered to pay $7,025 in restitution to the workers’ comp insurer.

According to Texas Mutual, Villanueva reported a job-related injury while working as a home health aide for Hill Country Community MHMR Center in Kerrville, Texas, and claimed she was unable to work because of her injury. Texas Mutual began paying income benefits to her, but then discovered Villanueva was working as a community service aide for another company.

Investigators call this type of scam “double-dipping” because the claimant collects benefits for being too injured to work when he or she is, in fact, gainfully employed.

The Texas Department of Insurance Division of Workers’ Compensation prosecutor in Travis County presented the case for indictment.

Source: Texas Mutual Insurance Co.