A 30-YEAR-OLD woman who defrauded her employers’ medical insurance scheme out of almost £25,000 has been sentenced to 240 hours of community service.
Victoria Catherine Carr submitted a series of invoices for medical treatments she had never received over the course of four years, the Royal Court heard yesterday.
She made the claims while working for two Jersey law firms between January 2019 and December 2022.
The frauds came to light when a fraud specialist became suspicious of the amounts she was claiming, after Carr had fraudulently obtained a total of £24,950 from insurance company Axa.
Between August last year and January this year she also unsuccessfully tried to claim another £1,295.
Crown Advocate Carla Carvalho, prosecuting, said the successful claims had included £10,900 for 30 physiotherapy and chiropractic appointments she never attended and £6,700 for 13 X-rays she did not receive.
Carr admitted fraud and attempted fraud when she appeared in the Magistrate’s Court in November.
She had claimed under police interview that she needed the money to support her elderly parents who live in Scotland, but the Royal Court was told this claim was “substantially untrue”.
Advocate Carvalho accepted that Carr had no previous convictions and was considered at low risk of reconviction, but said: “This was serious abuse of an employer’s health insurance, falsifying documents in order to obtain money she was not entitled to.”
Citing the outcomes of similar cases, she recommended an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
In mitigation, Advocate Mark Boothman said of Carr: “She will carry the shame for the rest of her life. There was a desire to help her parents as much as she possibly could. She felt obligated to assist her family.”
He also told the court that Carr’s partner had paid the money back and she was now repaying him.
Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae described the crimes as “sustained and repeated fraud” and pointed out: “This sort of fraudulent conduct affects everyone, through increased premiums.”
But he added: “You get full credit for your guilty plea. We accept that you are remorseful.”
Carr is two months pregnant so the Jurats agreed to postpone the start of her community service for 18 months. She was also ordered to pay £1,000 costs.
The Jurats were Robert Christensen and David Le Heuzé.
