6 A Briton, John Darvin, faked his death in a canoeing accident and then went to live in Panama on his own life insurance money. However, visa laws changed in Panama, and the identity verification processes increased. Darvin fled back to the UK where he faked amnesia, but his story was disclosed. 

Darvin, a £700k insurance fraudster, was a former prison officer. With the help of his wife, he faked his canoeing accident in March 2000. He was 70 at this time and had loads of debt to clear. 

He was reported missing from County Durham by his wife Anne. A police plane conducted a search to find him, but they failed since he hid in a tent further up the coast. The next day when his canoe was discovered, Anne declared him dead. 

John moved to his family home in Seaton Carew, as John Jones. He lived with his own tenets and did odd jobs. In April 2003, he was officially declared dead. Starting that August, Anne started receiving huge sums of his pension and insurance. 

After four years, John and his wife finally moved to Panama and stayed for a while. It was until Panama rules needed a letter from police in Britain stating he was a person of good character to gain permanent residence. 

He returned to England claiming he suffered from amnesia for five years in December 2001. This proved that Anne knew her husband wasn’t dead. 

They were charged with obtaining money by deception and he was jailed for six years and three months. His wife for three more months. (Source)

7 A 33-year-old hotelier, Richard Moore of Bury, Manchester, received £35,000 for three years from Aviva’s income protection policy. He claimed he suffered from depression, anxiety, and was too ill to work. However, for all this time, he worked multiple jobs and also received an award as managing director. 

The Manchester man had taken the income protection policy in 2008 so that he could guarantee his income in critical conditions. In 2013, he redeemed this policy and claimed he was suffering from psychological diseases. 

In 2017, a health review was conducted on him where he claimed that he had not worked since he became incapacitated. However, when Aviva conducted an investigation, they found out differently.

They discovered an article about Moore in a newspaper receiving awards as the managing director and owner of The Victoria in Bury. It was revealed that he worked multiple jobs for several years without letting his insurers know. 

Authorities mentioned that Moore would have continued with the fraud had his lies not been exposed. If this would’ve been the case, the conman would have received more than £400,000 by 2050. 

He was convicted of fraud and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. (Source)

8 Patrick Wayne Bronnon from Texas led a home insurance fraud ring and made claims worth $1.7 million. He bought old, cheap homes that were falsely insured for amounts more than their value and then used to carefully destroy them to claim the money. 

The fraudster was a 52-year-old man from Groves, Texas. With his gang, the criminal started executing his scheme in which he defrauded multiple insurance companies. They used to buy rundown old homes for low prices of up to $25,000 as straw buyers. 

Then he deceptively bought expensive insurance policies that covered the homes, including the personal possessions that didn’t exist. Then they recruited 40 cohorts to destroy the property by fire or water. During their fraud spree, they destroyed at least a dozen of homes for the insurance payouts. 

Nine of these were fire claims, three fraudulent water claims, and two theft claims were made. The properties were traced to nine different localities approximating $1.7 million in fraudulent payment. 

Bronnon was sentenced to 78 years in federal prison for the crimes. He was found guilty in October 2019 of 40 charges. He couldn’t serve his entire sentence since he died in the Summer 0f 2020. (1, 2)

9 Fake Medicare claims worth $375 million on healthy people were billed by a Texas doctor, Jacques Roy. Before his scheme of fake home health care was revealed, he mostly submitted claims for homeless people or people that were perfectly healthy. 

Along with Roy, six co-conspirators were involved in the long-running home health care scheme. They certified more than 11,000 Medicare beneficiaries for nearly six years until late 2011. 

The company that Roy and his crew owned was known as Medistat. It specialized in taking care of the homebound. It was a prerequisite for their patients to have a document consisting of a plan of care, and Roy asked his employees to sign in his name on the plan. 

To find new patients, the company worked with more than 500 home health care agencies or HHAs. The recruiters then used to have home visits and make people appear that they were receiving nursing services. 

This method of exploiting the system worked for Roy. The more patients he had, the more unnecessary services he could bill for. Authorities say that it is the largest single-physician home health care fraud in the country.

In August 2017, the leader, Roy, was sentenced to prison for 35 years. (1, 2)

10 A man who faked an amputation to fool his insurance company was Michael LeDuc. The Michigan resident submitted forged medical records that suggested that he lost an arm in a wooden chipper. 

LeDuc had bought the insurance policy of accidental death and dismemberment insurance in 2009. He came up with his wood chipper story in August 2010 in the hope to receive $251,000. 

The CUNA Mutual Group, the insurers, asked for medical records that supported the claim. He obtained the fake records and made a number of calls across interstate lines to check the status of his claim. 

In reality, the man had both arms, so it wasn’t really difficult for the authorities to realize that this was insurance fraud. However, also, his other criminal activities were also revealed, which included filling more false life insurance claims for a head injury, selling an ATV on eBay, and taking the money but never giving up the ATV. 

This 33-year-old man was sentenced to 57 months of federal prison for a charge of wire fraud. Also, after his release, three years of federal supervision were ordered by the court. (Source)