Committing insurance fraud is already bad enough, but when you endanger your children in the process it reaches a whole new level of scuminess. For mother of five, Ana Ovando, the exceptionally poor decision to stage three different collisions in one year was compounded by her even worse decision to bring her kids along for the ride.
Ovando staged three separate crashes, with her two oldest children in the vehicle during the first and all three children in the vehicle during the second and third incidents. She then had her children lie to insurance companies and medical personnel, as well as receive chiropractic treatments they didn’t need.
Prosecutors said, “These children were exposed to physical danger — Ovando put them in a vehicle with the full knowledge that they would be in an automobile accident on a city street. Having the children present in the vehicle made the accident look more ‘real,’ and Ovando hoped that it would keep the insurance companies from suspecting fraud.”
Unfortunately, the plan ultimately backfired by leading to an even harsher sentence. Ovando has been sentenced to a six and a half year prison term, a tougher-than-usual punishment according to federal sentencing guidelines.
In addition to being convicted of mail fraud conspiracy and mail fraud, Ovando was also caught on tape trying to convince her children to lie in court. And, if that’s not enough, she was implicated in food stamp fraud, shoplifting, and accused of conning a Guatemalan couple out of $20,000 by claiming she could help them secure “green cards.”
On top of the unusually stiff prison sentence, Ovando is also required to pay $71,300 in restitution to the insurance companies she defrauded and will be deported to her native country of the Dominican Republic upon release from jail.
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Andy Gillin received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his law degree from the University of Chicago. He is the managing partner of GJEL Accident Attorneys and has written and lectured in the field of plaintiffs’ personal injury law for numerous organizations. Since 1972 he has been helping seriously injured victims throughout northern California fight & win their personal injury cases. Andy is one of the top awarded & recognized wrongful death lawyers in northern California.