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Media Releases
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Private insurance investigator fined for workers compensation fraud
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13 July 2000
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A private investigator who investigated workers compensation injury claims was fined $2000 at the Sutherland Local Court yesterday for workers compensation fraud.
Christopher Crompton-Smith, 48, of Oatley, was charged with making a false statement to Commercial Union Workers Compensation. His claim related to an ankle injury sustained in New Zealand when attending a wedding on 20 January 1997.
The defendant returned to Australia on 26 January and two days later told a doctor at a medical centre that he had injured his ankle on 24 January when he stumbled between his car door and a kerb. However, in his insurance claim submitted on 29 January, he alleged the injury took place when moving a filing cabinet in his office on 24 January.
At the time the matter came to the notice of WorkCover NSW, medical expenses amounting to $2494.10 had already been paid. His claim was subsequently denied on the basis of the information given to the Authority.
The magistrate, Mr D Reiss, in his summing up, noted that the defendant was a private investigator who by profession investigated fraudulent insurance claims.
He fined him $2,000 (the maximum allowable) with court costs of $54, allowing 28 days to pay. He further ordered that the defendant perform 100 hours of community service at the direction of the Hurstville office of the Adult Probation and Parole Service.
The Acting General Manager of WorkCover, Mr Warwick McDonald, commenting on the case, said: "The community has every right to expect that investigators who investigate workers compensation claims on behalf of the WorkCover Scheme are ethical."
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