Insurance lawyers in Fort Worth, Arlington, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Lake Worth, Saginaw, and other places in Tarrant County need to be tuned in to what looks like or constitutes insurance fraud. The Texas Penal Code, Chapter 35 deals with insurance fraud in the State of Texas. Also the Texas Department of Insurance has information that may be helpful for learning more about it.
The Associated Press ran an article in August 2012, that dealt with an example of insurance fraud:
The article tells us that a man who reported his father missing at a beach in New York was charged with insurance fraud and filing a false report several days after his father turned up alive in the State of South Carolina. This was following a massive air and water search that cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The man is Jonathan Roth, age 22. He also was charged with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Roth faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. His arraignment will be arranged soon and it is not yet clear whether or not he has hired or retained an attorney to represent him or if he will represent himself.
Roth is maintaining the position that he had nothing to do with the actions of his father, Raymond Roth. He has told police that his father went swimming at a place called Jones Beach and disappeared. His stepmother, Evana Roth, claims her husband staged the disappearance without her knowledge and has distributed emails to the news media that suggest he tried to fake his own death, however this had not yet been fully verified.
One email seems to suggest that Raymond Roth, 47, instructed his son to contact him at an Orlando, Florida, resort one day after he was last seen at Jones Beach. A second email seems to have been sent nine minutes later refers to Raymond Roth’s need to “get to the bank for cash for the trip.”
Jonathan Roth said he never received any of the alleged emails from his father.
Evana Roth said her husband had recently been fired from his job. He supposedly also put their Massapequa house up for sale; at a listing has an asking price of $550,000.
On Monday, she obtained an order of protection against him and announced plans to file for divorce.
Nassau County Police, in an interview, said Friday that Roth recently had been required to surrender a handgun and his pistol license after a harassment complaint was filed against him in New York City. Details of the complaint were not immediately available to reporting agencies.
After the disappearance, Raymond Roth was stopped going 90 mph and given a speeding ticket in Santee, S.C. The officer who issued the ticket saw that Roth was listed in a national registry of missing people. Roth said he was returning to New York, and the officer let him proceed north.
Capt. Bruce Marx of the New York State Park Police, which has jurisdiction over Jones Beach, said Monday they have yet to hear from Raymond Roth. He promised them Thursday that he was returning to New York.
In Texas, the punishments for insurance fraud are found in The Penal Code chapter stated above. If this had happened in Texas, and he were convicted, there is the possibility that he could be looking at spending the rest of his life in prison.