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Lexington man pleads guilty to insurance fraud
June 30, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Russ Dubisky, Executive Director
803-252-3455 or cell phone 803-708-5271
russd@scinsnews.com
Columbia, S.C. – June 30, 2010 – A Lexington man has pleaded guilty to insurance fraud.
Robert Hankinson, 43, on June 22 pleaded guilty to presenting a false claim for payment of $1,000 or less.
Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Hankinson to 30 days. The plea was accepted in Lexington County Court of General Sessions.
Authorities said that on Feb. 27, 2010, Hankinson reported to S.C. Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. that he had been injured when a family member backed into him a month earlier. Hankinson claimed injuries totaling $2,016.
The family member denied the accident had happened. Hankinson gave three different accident dates and two accident locations before he voluntarily withdrew his claim for payment.
At his plea, Hankinson said he had been hit by the car, but that he was not injured as he had claimed.
The case was investigated by SLED and S.C. Farm Bureau. It was prosecuted by the S.C. Attorney General’s Office.
The S.C. Insurance News Service reports a few interesting facts from the Attorney General’s 2009 report on insurance fraud:
By far the largest number of complaints came from automobile insurance fraud, at 493 of the 834 total (59 percent). Personal/commercial property fraud was next most common, at 13 percent of the total, followed by workers’ comp (10 percent) and health/medical (9 percent).
Cases have been reported from all over the state and the 335 files opened break down by region as follows:
Low Country: 30% (102)
Piedmont : 24% (79)
Midlands: 24% (82)
Pee Dee: 22% (72)
Richland County reported the largest number of complaints made, with 88, in an amount of $1,628,174.
Greenville County had the largest dollar value of fraud reported, with $2,226,496 (63 complaints).
The South Carolina Insurance Fraud Hotline, 1 (888) 95-FRAUD, is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for reporting insurance fraud, which can be a felony in South Carolina. All reports remain confidential.
For more information, contact the South Carolina Insurance News Service at 803-252-3455 or use our contact form.
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